cmiiw as always ^^
55 Special！Michishige Sayumi Interview parts ＆ Be Alive
──Full of happiness from being able to join the Morning Musume she loved so much.
I took the audition simply because I wanted to join Morning Musume so when I heard that I passed I really felt nothing but happiness. I was going like "Yahoo!" (lol)
I was in such high spirits that even the thought of leaving my hometown in Yamaguchi didn't make me feel any loneliness or other negative moods at all. More like "Alright! I got to go to Tokyo!" (lol)
When they said I could be a part of Morning Musume, I was full of nothing but joy and happiness but after actually joining, to see the intensity of the lessons and the senpais strictness with my own eyes I started to think "Ah I have to work harder here". But even then I was still so moved emotionally by being join the group I loved so much.
──Being appointed as the 8th Leader. The renewed "feelings"
I always wanted to be the leader, you know. So when I finally became on I was of course very happy but when it comes down to it everyday I was always so nervous and the pressure felt like it would overwhelm me at any moment. I kept thinking that as the leader I have to do it more properly/reliably and at the back of my mind I always worried about what should I do if they compared me to the previous leaders.
I kept thinking only of all those negative thoughts so one day I resolved to change my way of thinking. Up until then I would only think about myself, like as long as I'm doing good or in a good spot it's all fine but from then on I converted my attitude to thinking that I also have to do my best as the leader by seriously thinking of the group and how we do our activities as a whole as well.
There's a 10-years gap between me and the youngest members, so saying there wasn't any distance between us from a start would definitely be a lie.
But we're doing this as part of the same group after all and I think communication is very important so even as the only one in the twenties, I'd mingle with the teenagers and play Gyuutan game or such with them (lol)
As we do that we can shorten the distances between each other and get along nicely with everyone. Instead of holding on to some weird pride, I'd also ask my kouhais "this part, what was the pitch for it again?" or "hey teach me the dance for this part" straightforwardly. In that aspect I have to focus not on the Michishige Sayumi who is the most senior in the group but as the Michishige Sayumi who's one of the members of Morning Musume, I have to realize that for the group I can't go on like that (the holding on to pride thing) so I'd properly ask the members who are skilled at dancing etc to teach me.
I'd take care not to neglect having those kinds of communications.
──Now that things are shaping favorably, it's time for the 2nd start.
Joining the Morning Musume that I loved, becoming its leader, and being able to have 4 consecutive single ranked 1st, I strongly believe that here is our second start line.
With the current 10 members, we'll do our best so we could cut open a new path for this group.
──A story around the time of joining, she's so frantic because she loved it.
From the time of joining to 3-4 years later, I was always so frantic. I only thought about how I have to catch up to the senpais and I can't be dragging their feet down, anything less won't do.
──As the longest serving member in Morning Musume's history, looking back on those 11 years.
To be completely honest, I've been doing this for 11 years after all so it wasn't always fun all the time. Of course there are times when it was really hard for me and days where I just wanted to take a break from it all but even among those emotions my feeling of love for Morning Musume was still strong so I was able to keep going. I made it this far and still kept going thanks to that feeling.
──Participating in variety shows, searching for her own "role"
Although I did my best, my singing couldn't quite improve satisfactorily and when compared to the other members it's not like my dancing have any sharpness that made me stand out so I was starting to really wonder what my place in the group is. At that time when I was troubled, I got an assignment to appear in a variety show so I thought "I have to put all my effort into working hard here, I have to leave some impression. If I don't try my hardest now then when?". So then I did my best to make my appeals in that show.
──After appearing in varieties, the reality of Morning Musume that she learned.
Going out on varieties on my own, it's like stepping outside of my own circle taught me the reality that the current Morning Musume then was not well-known at all.
Our own fans know about us of course but the society at large and even fellow entertainers would say things like 「Who's in Morning Musume right now？」 or 「Who's the leader？」. That was the first time I learned how not well-known at all we were, since then whenever I appeared on variety shows I started being aware of different things.
──Even if she get hated on, she wanted people to know of Morning Musume
Even if I they hated me, like 「Wow.. she's annoying」 as long as they remember the name Michishige Sayumi, looked it up and reached Morning Musume at the end of it, if some of those people began to like Morning Musume, then I truly felt that it was well worth it.
──Aspiring to outshine the Morning Musume she looked up to at that time.
When I joined Morning Musume eleven years ago, if you talked about Japan's top idol it's definitely Morning Musume. At school when they're holding a new audition everyone would be like 「Ah they're doing an audition again right? Wanna try it?」 and there's no shortage of topics when talking about them.
I'd love to overtake the Morning Musume of that time with the current Morning Musume. We have to aspire to be in a position where once again people would think of Morning Musume when talking about Japan's top idol. Of course this is not something you can achieve immediately but to that end we're resolved to do our very best.
SayuuuuU~
And a little snippet from Fukuhime
As it stands now, I think it's merely because our leader Michishige-san is here with us that we're known as Morning Musume'14.
It's embarrassing to just leave it as it is so we must showcase our personality more and get our own personal names out there. Now that Morning Musume'14 could be equaled to formation dances, we also have to keep improving our own performance skills to be able to give even more wonderful performances that will resonate in a lot of people's hearts.
She'd make a great leader too one day...
monday morning edit----------
Ah might as well leave some quick summaries of the rest of the current members' comments
-----Sakura
-She felt time goes by so fast, it's already more than a year since she joined.
-She talked about the differences between the dance lessons during her time as Kenshuusei and as part of Morning Musume. In Kenshuusei she only has to make sure to perfect the moves that would let her stand out. in Morning Musume everyone has to match each other's rhythm and move as one. Lately when training in front of the mirrors she even looked to what the senpais are doing than her own reflection.
-She likes technopop and dancing to EDM. She thinks having her voice processed is very refreshing.
-For now whenever the appear on tv she wants to leave an impression as the "forehead showing girl who's good at singing".
-----Tenki
-Harunan felt like there was so many first experiences for her in the past 2 years.
-Even though the gap between the Qki and the Tenki joining was short, at the time Kudou thought the Qki was way ahead of them in how polished their singing and dancing was. They were having a very difficult time catching up in a lot of areas so they were scolded many times for failing to learn the songs completely or to express themselves properly.
-Ayumin said the things she learned in Sendai up until then was very different from Morning Musume. It's not just about the genre but also about how to express themselves on stage. Because they were always singing while dancing, putting all her effort into just dancing like she used to isn't gonna cut and she has to think about how to convey something through both her singing and dancing, it was very hard.
-Harunan didn't even know there were things like rhythm in dancing so even when she asked Ayumi to teach her how to dance she'd end up going blank. That time she couldn't even tell her left from her right so she was really thankful for her generation mates and the senpais who'd teach her from the beginning.
-Maachan talked about how nervous she was when performing Wakuteka Take a Chance. It was the first time Morning Musume used a diagonal line formation dance and she was positioned at the front and the dance instructor told her to soften her expressions a bit. At the time, she thought she already did that properly but looking at the recordings she was like "you've gotta be kidding me, what's up with this?". Everyone in Qki mirrors her sentiment and added how all their expressions there were so stiff.
-----Qki
-Riho began by saying how all four of them were already pretty big fans of Morning Musume. Even among other idols they were so cool in their dancing and singing but when Qki actually joined it's just full of frustrations. There were so many things to remember in such a short period of time that they can't quite learn the dance quick enough and can't sing the song properly. They weren't used to a lot of things that they have to do then as part of Morning Musume so at that point she realized that to make the people looking to think how cool they were, there are layers of hard work they have to put in behind it. She'll do her best to come closer to the image of Morning Musume that she had always admired.
-Kanon thought all of her fellow new members would be the same as her, girls with no experience in singing and dancing. When it turned out everyone else already had some dance experience and compared to her they all have faster learning abilities she got a huge case of inferiority complex. At the beginning, everyday she'd think about how she's being left behind and that kind of sad feelings just kept piling up. But somehow she managed to turn it into a good kind of pressure, her generation mates being better than she was always pressured her to do her best but at the same time they're also always there to help her.
-Remarkably, Eripon had a pretty big solo part during their debut period. Back then her senpais told her how precious that was and not to take it for granted even though it's just her debut song. Up until now, there probably wasn't any song that she had a solo part close to as long that... so in whatever short moment she had, she always seriously thought about how to make it count, how to make her face memorable. In that moment she has to look cool, in that short moment she put all her life into it.
