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flytotheworldThis shoot was so cute and I was sure the interview would be, too, so I decided to spend the afternoon translating it. There are also little solo comments, but I need a quick break before I translate those, so look for those later tonight or tomorrow ♥
V6: the Johnny's group who have grown to adulthood as a group, who boast the greatest motor nerves which played a huge part in their debut, whose mutli-faceted talents continue to bloom, and who give off an impressively unique vibe. Entering their 20th anniversary year, the members will discuss the path that brought them here and their current mental state.
You've entered your 20th anniversary year, so first I'd like to ask about your debut event.
Inohara: Of course, we held a debut event, but up until that point, things hadn't gone very well, so we were incredulous about it. When we heard the concrete details about it from the agency, we were like, "oh, it's real," and when we saw it all over in the papers and on TV, we honestly had the feeling of, "wow, we're gonna debut."
Sakamoto: I really do not remember that.
Inohara: Sakamoto asked me at the time if I wanted to be the leader.
Sakamoto: I really honestly did not want to do it, so it was a serious request.
Inohara: I lightheartedly went, "okay~" but then immediately after that, someone in the agency designated Sakamoto as the leader.
Sakamoto: I really wondered what I should do. In clubs, I had always taken the position of sub-captain, so I'd pretty much quit the clubs whenever I became leader.
Inohara: None of us really remember the event at Velfarre1, right?
Morita: The thing/guy2 that came out of the balloon? That's about all I remember. It was really hard to breathe into it.
Nagano: We heard from the staff that the balloons had "x minutes of oxygen" in them, but then they said "y minutes to showtime" and the time we had to wait was longer than the amount of oxygen in them.
Inohara: Nagano-kun, you really like that story, don't you? (laughs) You tell it about once a month.
Nagano: Do not! (laughs) But Ken, you don't even remember what happened yesterday, do you?
Miyake: I sort of remember breaking something and coming out. Or was that at the event at Yoyogi? And that the pedestrian bridge shook and that it was on the news.
Inohara: To go back in time a little before that, we did a concert at the Hiten (in the large-scale banquet hall in the Grand Prince Hotel in Shin-takanawa) called "It's summer! It's a festival! Children's Carnival" and GoKen (the combination of Go and Ken when they were Juniors which was quite popular), you two were the main group.
Miyake: That's right, we did.
Inohara: I was MC, and then about two months after that, we all debuted.
Miyake: That's why. I didn't know the name of the banquet hall at the time, but when we did FNS Kayousai there, I was like, "oh, I've been here before" and remembered that concert.
Inohara: Around that time, everything was sort of in a kerfuffle, and the timetables were all sorts of messed up, too. We brought Okada back from Osaka while he was still not really sure of how to go with the flow.
Okada: I didn't really know anybody, so all I remember is feeling really sorry. I was put into a group really quickly, and so I had sempai among the Juniors who weren't yet able to enter groups.
Inohara: It makes you feel bad, doesn't it?
Okada: I felt really bad.
How did Okada view the other members?
Okada: Go and Ken were really popular as Juniors. Sakamoto-kun was scary, Nagano-kun was nice, and Inocchi seemed like a bratty boss type. Sakamoto-kun was still doing plays so I didn't really have a chance to meet him.
Sakamoto: When we did meet for the first time, I was still in my stage makeup (laughs).
Okada: Sakamoto-kun is a big brother who's ten years older than me, and I really got the feeling he had a determination to do his best, one greater than anyone else's, so for me as a little 14-year old who knew nothing and him as a 24-year old...
Sakamoto: It sucked how I put so much pressure on everyone (bitter laugh).
Inohara: We were a group formed for the Volleyball World Cup, but Sakamoto-kun, you developed even more of a passion for volleyball.
Okada: He'd get mad at me, all "WHY CAN'T YOU RECEIVE?!" (laughs) And being me, even while I was wondering why he got so mad, I'd reply back, "okay!" while all scared.
Inohara: You got really judgmental about volleyball.
Sakamoto: I sucked (bitter laughs).
Inohara: When it came to your passion for volleyball, you were all in. After the game, you were like "Japan lost!" and cried (laughs). When Japan played China, you were the only one sitting on the Japanese bench in your coat...
Sakamoto: I was hiding and watching the game.
Inohara: Right. When Japan lost, you came back after the game wracked with sobs.
Miyake: Leader seriously cries in a lot of situations (laughs).
Do you remember "V no Honoo," your first drama together? (Aired on Fuji TV in 1995)
Morita: I really remember it, since we were all living in a boarding house together.
Miyake: We'd go together on the train to the shoot. Where was it even?
Nagano: Somewhere in or around Nerima, wasn't it?
Inohara: There was an okonomiyaki place on the second floor above our dressing room, and Tsuchida Teriyuki was there with us.
Miyake: Right, right! Man, that takes me back (laughs).
At the time, what made you happiest?
Sakamoto: Debuting.
Nagano: Definitely our debut. That was the best.
Miyake: But I feel that's sort of a "looking back on it" feeling. At the time, I was really happy, of course, but I sort of felt like we'd just be this fleeting thing. I didn't think we'd keep going for so long.
Inohara: It's like the feeling of excitement you get at a concert.
Miyake: I thought we were just a thing they'd planned to have from the Volleyball World Cup until the Youth Summer Volleyball Tournament.
When did you really feel like you wouldn't be just a temporary thing?
Miyake: Probably when our second song ccame out? Or our third or fourth? is sort of when I realized it.
Inohara: I thought we'd only be around about 6 years. So that's why I set the goal of, okay, for now, let's just get to 6 years.
Miyake: That's why you don't have any memories of our 5-year celebration. Is that right?
Inohara: Dunno.
Miyake: I felt like we'd keep going for about 10 years.
Inohara: I remember our 2nd single, "MADE IN JAPAN," making it to number 1, and getting congratulated by Higashiyama (Noriyuki) when our album made it to number 1. Okada, is there anything you remember?
Okada: Sakamoto-kun's tears.
Inohara: There has to be something besides that! (laughs)
Nagano: He cries over everything (laughs).
Inohara: After the match with China? During the campfire?3
Nagano: He cries a lot.
Miyake: Seeing Leader crying in our dressing room at TBS, I remember thinking that this is what adult tears were like. I got a real education out of that.
Inohara: What about you, Go?
Morita: You all said everything already, I think. Our first concert also made me really happy.
Miyake: Where was that even at?
Nagano: Osaka.
Miyake: Oh, I remember now. The one where we were wearing those chameleon-looking outfits from Hikaru Genji.
Sakamoto: Ken, you really didn't know how to change clothes quickly back then.
Miyake: Really?
Inohara: Sakamoto-kun taught me chants that were popular where he lived, and we did them when the ending of the show went well (laughs).
Nagano: Who did our sets for us at that time?
Inohara: X JAPAN.
Miyake: They did?
Inohara: Yup. It was also a first for the play director.
Miyake: We were really putting a lot of work into our backflips, and I feel like we got really excited that we were able to do a concert.
You also had three separate programs for your 2003 concert tour -- V Program, VV Program, and VVV Program -- which you showed off in your "Summer Special Dream Live 2003" concerts.
Inohara: That was really hard.
Sakamoto: At that time, we had both the front sides and back sides of the set on the stage, so when I didn't know which was which, I'd get really confused like, "which menu are we doing?"
Inohara: We did shows every day for about two weeks at Yoyogi, so during MCs, we'd run out of things to talk about.
Miyake: We did a lot of things, huh. Having the rain falling in columns was really pretty.
Why do you think you've continued as this group for 20 years?
Inohara: Without just limiting it to V6, other groups are the same, and ending it is definitely easy to do. But I wonder what's kept us going so long that we haven't lost anyone, either...
Okada: For me, the 5 of you are all great people, so maybe it's because we all have our own work that we do. The 6 of us have an interesting vibe. That's all I think about when we're doing our group work.
Inohara: How do you mean?
Okada: Sometimes, when I'm just totally useless, I think "it'd be better if I could be better." When we're together, the 6 of us, I unconsciously soften up, I think.
Inohara: Because the onus is on all of us because we're all doing it together. And by that I mean we can divide our responsibilities evenly among the 6 of us.
Please tell us about what you're hoping for and what your plans are for the coming year.
Nagano: We weren't able to tour in 2014, so I want to no matter what.
Sakamoto: There's a lot I want to do, but there are problems with physically doing them, so I'm thinking now on what I can actually do.
Miyake: I of course want to do a concert tour, but more than that, I'd like to do a lot of fan meetings.
Morita: I also want to tour. The fans are the reason we've been able to keep doing this for 20 years, and I'd like to tell that to them directly. After that, you guys wanna go on a trip?
Inohara: In a Romance Car?4
Nagano: To Hakone?
Morita: We'd be staying overnight, right?
Inohara: To bring it back to an earlier point about VV Program being really hard, Leader also cried then (laughs).
Okada: For the people who've supported us for 20 years, and for our newer fans, telling them "thank you" is all I care about. And beyond that, if we could see Sakamoto-kun cry... (laughs).
Inohara: He'll definitely cry.
Sakamoto: I will if we have another campfire.
Inohara: You'll already be 44 then, won't you?
Sakamoto: 44... I'll probably be at my limit.
Inohara: Come on, you said just the other day "there's no such thing as limits."
Sakamoto: Nah... you'll definitely see my limits when I dance (laughs).
. notes .
01. Velfarre was a club in Roppongi where V6 held their debut event (obviously). It closed down in 2007.
02. Having never seen footage of the event, I'm not sure if it was a dude or a thing that came out of the balloon, or if they themselves came out of a giant balloon. I don't want to spread misinformation, hence this note. I can't find anything really about it on Japanese Google, so if someone who's been here longer than I have and knows more about the event can fill me in/correct me, that'd be super.
03. He's talking about the V6 10th Anniversay special in Hokkaido from the 2005.11.01 episode of "Gakkou e Ikou." Which you should watch immediately if you haven't seen it.
04. Inocchi is talking about "Odakyu Electric Railway's name for its limited express luxury tourist services southwest of Tokyo."
V6: the Johnny's group who have grown to adulthood as a group, who boast the greatest motor nerves which played a huge part in their debut, whose mutli-faceted talents continue to bloom, and who give off an impressively unique vibe. Entering their 20th anniversary year, the members will discuss the path that brought them here and their current mental state.
You've entered your 20th anniversary year, so first I'd like to ask about your debut event.
Inohara: Of course, we held a debut event, but up until that point, things hadn't gone very well, so we were incredulous about it. When we heard the concrete details about it from the agency, we were like, "oh, it's real," and when we saw it all over in the papers and on TV, we honestly had the feeling of, "wow, we're gonna debut."
Sakamoto: I really do not remember that.
Inohara: Sakamoto asked me at the time if I wanted to be the leader.
Sakamoto: I really honestly did not want to do it, so it was a serious request.
Inohara: I lightheartedly went, "okay~" but then immediately after that, someone in the agency designated Sakamoto as the leader.
Sakamoto: I really wondered what I should do. In clubs, I had always taken the position of sub-captain, so I'd pretty much quit the clubs whenever I became leader.
Inohara: None of us really remember the event at Velfarre1, right?
Morita: The thing/guy2 that came out of the balloon? That's about all I remember. It was really hard to breathe into it.
Nagano: We heard from the staff that the balloons had "x minutes of oxygen" in them, but then they said "y minutes to showtime" and the time we had to wait was longer than the amount of oxygen in them.
Inohara: Nagano-kun, you really like that story, don't you? (laughs) You tell it about once a month.
Nagano: Do not! (laughs) But Ken, you don't even remember what happened yesterday, do you?
Miyake: I sort of remember breaking something and coming out. Or was that at the event at Yoyogi? And that the pedestrian bridge shook and that it was on the news.
Inohara: To go back in time a little before that, we did a concert at the Hiten (in the large-scale banquet hall in the Grand Prince Hotel in Shin-takanawa) called "It's summer! It's a festival! Children's Carnival" and GoKen (the combination of Go and Ken when they were Juniors which was quite popular), you two were the main group.
Miyake: That's right, we did.
Inohara: I was MC, and then about two months after that, we all debuted.
Miyake: That's why. I didn't know the name of the banquet hall at the time, but when we did FNS Kayousai there, I was like, "oh, I've been here before" and remembered that concert.
Inohara: Around that time, everything was sort of in a kerfuffle, and the timetables were all sorts of messed up, too. We brought Okada back from Osaka while he was still not really sure of how to go with the flow.
Okada: I didn't really know anybody, so all I remember is feeling really sorry. I was put into a group really quickly, and so I had sempai among the Juniors who weren't yet able to enter groups.
Inohara: It makes you feel bad, doesn't it?
Okada: I felt really bad.
How did Okada view the other members?
Okada: Go and Ken were really popular as Juniors. Sakamoto-kun was scary, Nagano-kun was nice, and Inocchi seemed like a bratty boss type. Sakamoto-kun was still doing plays so I didn't really have a chance to meet him.
Sakamoto: When we did meet for the first time, I was still in my stage makeup (laughs).
Okada: Sakamoto-kun is a big brother who's ten years older than me, and I really got the feeling he had a determination to do his best, one greater than anyone else's, so for me as a little 14-year old who knew nothing and him as a 24-year old...
Sakamoto: It sucked how I put so much pressure on everyone (bitter laugh).
Inohara: We were a group formed for the Volleyball World Cup, but Sakamoto-kun, you developed even more of a passion for volleyball.
Okada: He'd get mad at me, all "WHY CAN'T YOU RECEIVE?!" (laughs) And being me, even while I was wondering why he got so mad, I'd reply back, "okay!" while all scared.
Inohara: You got really judgmental about volleyball.
Sakamoto: I sucked (bitter laughs).
Inohara: When it came to your passion for volleyball, you were all in. After the game, you were like "Japan lost!" and cried (laughs). When Japan played China, you were the only one sitting on the Japanese bench in your coat...
Sakamoto: I was hiding and watching the game.
Inohara: Right. When Japan lost, you came back after the game wracked with sobs.
Miyake: Leader seriously cries in a lot of situations (laughs).
Do you remember "V no Honoo," your first drama together? (Aired on Fuji TV in 1995)
Morita: I really remember it, since we were all living in a boarding house together.
Miyake: We'd go together on the train to the shoot. Where was it even?
Nagano: Somewhere in or around Nerima, wasn't it?
Inohara: There was an okonomiyaki place on the second floor above our dressing room, and Tsuchida Teriyuki was there with us.
Miyake: Right, right! Man, that takes me back (laughs).
At the time, what made you happiest?
Sakamoto: Debuting.
Nagano: Definitely our debut. That was the best.
Miyake: But I feel that's sort of a "looking back on it" feeling. At the time, I was really happy, of course, but I sort of felt like we'd just be this fleeting thing. I didn't think we'd keep going for so long.
Inohara: It's like the feeling of excitement you get at a concert.
Miyake: I thought we were just a thing they'd planned to have from the Volleyball World Cup until the Youth Summer Volleyball Tournament.
When did you really feel like you wouldn't be just a temporary thing?
Miyake: Probably when our second song ccame out? Or our third or fourth? is sort of when I realized it.
Inohara: I thought we'd only be around about 6 years. So that's why I set the goal of, okay, for now, let's just get to 6 years.
Miyake: That's why you don't have any memories of our 5-year celebration. Is that right?
Inohara: Dunno.
Miyake: I felt like we'd keep going for about 10 years.
Inohara: I remember our 2nd single, "MADE IN JAPAN," making it to number 1, and getting congratulated by Higashiyama (Noriyuki) when our album made it to number 1. Okada, is there anything you remember?
Okada: Sakamoto-kun's tears.
Inohara: There has to be something besides that! (laughs)
Nagano: He cries over everything (laughs).
Inohara: After the match with China? During the campfire?3
Nagano: He cries a lot.
Miyake: Seeing Leader crying in our dressing room at TBS, I remember thinking that this is what adult tears were like. I got a real education out of that.
Inohara: What about you, Go?
Morita: You all said everything already, I think. Our first concert also made me really happy.
Miyake: Where was that even at?
Nagano: Osaka.
Miyake: Oh, I remember now. The one where we were wearing those chameleon-looking outfits from Hikaru Genji.
Sakamoto: Ken, you really didn't know how to change clothes quickly back then.
Miyake: Really?
Inohara: Sakamoto-kun taught me chants that were popular where he lived, and we did them when the ending of the show went well (laughs).
Nagano: Who did our sets for us at that time?
Inohara: X JAPAN.
Miyake: They did?
Inohara: Yup. It was also a first for the play director.
Miyake: We were really putting a lot of work into our backflips, and I feel like we got really excited that we were able to do a concert.
You also had three separate programs for your 2003 concert tour -- V Program, VV Program, and VVV Program -- which you showed off in your "Summer Special Dream Live 2003" concerts.
Inohara: That was really hard.
Sakamoto: At that time, we had both the front sides and back sides of the set on the stage, so when I didn't know which was which, I'd get really confused like, "which menu are we doing?"
Inohara: We did shows every day for about two weeks at Yoyogi, so during MCs, we'd run out of things to talk about.
Miyake: We did a lot of things, huh. Having the rain falling in columns was really pretty.
Why do you think you've continued as this group for 20 years?
Inohara: Without just limiting it to V6, other groups are the same, and ending it is definitely easy to do. But I wonder what's kept us going so long that we haven't lost anyone, either...
Okada: For me, the 5 of you are all great people, so maybe it's because we all have our own work that we do. The 6 of us have an interesting vibe. That's all I think about when we're doing our group work.
Inohara: How do you mean?
Okada: Sometimes, when I'm just totally useless, I think "it'd be better if I could be better." When we're together, the 6 of us, I unconsciously soften up, I think.
Inohara: Because the onus is on all of us because we're all doing it together. And by that I mean we can divide our responsibilities evenly among the 6 of us.
Please tell us about what you're hoping for and what your plans are for the coming year.
Nagano: We weren't able to tour in 2014, so I want to no matter what.
Sakamoto: There's a lot I want to do, but there are problems with physically doing them, so I'm thinking now on what I can actually do.
Miyake: I of course want to do a concert tour, but more than that, I'd like to do a lot of fan meetings.
Morita: I also want to tour. The fans are the reason we've been able to keep doing this for 20 years, and I'd like to tell that to them directly. After that, you guys wanna go on a trip?
Inohara: In a Romance Car?4
Nagano: To Hakone?
Morita: We'd be staying overnight, right?
Inohara: To bring it back to an earlier point about VV Program being really hard, Leader also cried then (laughs).
Okada: For the people who've supported us for 20 years, and for our newer fans, telling them "thank you" is all I care about. And beyond that, if we could see Sakamoto-kun cry... (laughs).
Inohara: He'll definitely cry.
Sakamoto: I will if we have another campfire.
Inohara: You'll already be 44 then, won't you?
Sakamoto: 44... I'll probably be at my limit.
Inohara: Come on, you said just the other day "there's no such thing as limits."
Sakamoto: Nah... you'll definitely see my limits when I dance (laughs).
. notes .
01. Velfarre was a club in Roppongi where V6 held their debut event (obviously). It closed down in 2007.
02. Having never seen footage of the event, I'm not sure if it was a dude or a thing that came out of the balloon, or if they themselves came out of a giant balloon. I don't want to spread misinformation, hence this note. I can't find anything really about it on Japanese Google, so if someone who's been here longer than I have and knows more about the event can fill me in/correct me, that'd be super.
03. He's talking about the V6 10th Anniversay special in Hokkaido from the 2005.11.01 episode of "Gakkou e Ikou." Which you should watch immediately if you haven't seen it.
04. Inocchi is talking about "Odakyu Electric Railway's name for its limited express luxury tourist services southwest of Tokyo."
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Date: 2015-01-20 02:37 am (UTC)thanks for the translation. I wonder if there any indication which month they will having their concert this year, I already start save money from now ^.^"
no subject
Date: 2015-01-20 06:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-01-20 12:22 pm (UTC)
Date: 2015-01-20 01:19 pm (UTC)Thanks for the translation. it was so interesting