Keyakitte, Kakenai -- hidden camera makes members even more likeable

Sunday's episode of Keyakitte, Kakenai was what's referred to as a "godly" episode. 2channel is full of comment on it. The producers are taking things to another level, getting us just a bit closer to some of the members than we had gotten before, with hidden cameras in a dressing room. (click images to enlarge)

Camera locations

Even Hirate reacts strongly when the trick is revealed

We got to see new sides of several members: Suzumoto, Risa, Mii-chan, Neru....


For one thing, we saw the off-stage Suzumoto, who seems to be much more funny and active than what we're used to. Hirate brought in treats for the members. When Hirate told her they were from Waguriya, a famous store specializing in chestnut sweets, especially mont blancs, Suzumoto got really excited. "Waaaah!" she cried, then checked out the boxes and said: "It's true!" Suzumoto's first self-characterization was as the girl who loves eating anything made with chestnuts.

Hirate: They're from Waguriya.

Suzumoto: "What? Waguriya? It's stuff from Waguriya?"

Hirate came over specifically to point out to Suzumoto what was there -- she probably bought them in part because she knew Suzumoto loved chestnut sweets. It's a bit hard for Hirate (and everyone else) that she gets all these outside jobs, and when she went out for this one, she brought back some top-notch sweets for everyone. Talking to Suzumoto, she was attentive but a bit off-hand, maybe embarrassed to be doing something for the older friend she came up to Tokyo with last year.


Later, Suzumoto said, to no-one in particular: "I guess there's no-one who doesn't want chestnut bean-jelly...." When Mii-chan said: "Yes there is, " Suzumoto jumped at the chance. I actually think Mii-chan only half didn't want them, and also half wanted to be nice to Miyu. Then Miyu happily kept singing lines from l'Arc-en-Ciel's Honey, which came out when she was one year old, drifting off into a kind of pun using the phrase: "I don't want to wear clothes for the rest of my life." I think she was referring to the difficulty of dressing properly as an idol. Not sure.

Near the end of the clip, as she got her stuff together to leave, she said in a funny voice: "She's got everything perfect. The idiot goes home." 

Suzumoto's off in the corner entertaining the others with her schtick.
"Full of old-guy gags" says the on-screen title.

As she leaves, Suzumoto says: "The idiot goes home."

Suzumoto thinks: "Oh, #$@%, it's done now and there's nothing I can do about it
-- but I guess it's okay"

2channel was delighted with the new Miyu. Miyu herself was embarrassed that the show went ahead and showed this, and gave us a classic disgusted-but-what-can-I-do expression, but her popularity is definitely going to rise from it. So this is the face Miyu shows her friends. As the host said, she's genki (active and happy) when she's off-stage.

Neru wondered what they would show. She didn't think she was any different
in private than she was in public. And the hosts agreed.

And how about Neru? She was playing the whole time, spinning fantasies for other members' entertainment. She played with Oda Nana, hugging her from behind and being shaken off, but maybe after Oda had been cheered up a  bit. Then she and Mona had a nice exchange where Neru pretended she was scared of ghosts, and Shida promised to put up a barrier against them, a "happy barrier." They then did a word-game together based on how many syllables there were in their names, and in Oda's. Oda's name won, said Neru, because it has the fewest. Mainly, Shida sat there in the corner, studying a magazine or looking at things on her phone.

Neru comes in and shouts: "Yaay! Oda Nana" and rushes up and grabs her around the middle.
Oda, extricating herself: "I've eaten a lot."

Neru, pretending to sense supernatural presences: "I'm scared, I'm scared.
As soon as I came in here I felt something scary."

Shida: "I'll put up a barrier to protect you from now on."

Shida, asked if she could really create magical barriers: "You need physical strength to put up barriers."

Nanako showed us what she talks about on TV and in her blog: that she eats a lot, and a wide variety of things. I loved seeing her ratty little camo backpack, slung low on her back, as she started her meal with ice cream.

Zuumin just kept singing, going through Nishino Nanase songs, occasionally slipping in lines about wanting to meet various women entertainers. When she mentioned Arimura Kasumi, Fuu-chan chimed in: "She's really something."

And Risa was like a cross between a hoodlum and an officious mother, bringing Mii-chan tissues when she whined for them, but being pretty harsh with her, ordering her not to spill things in a way that commenters said made her sound like a gang girl. But she also picked up all the empty boxes of the catered food they were brought. She was kind and cruel at the same time.

Koike whining for help after spilling her ice cream.

Risa: "Just don't spill stuff, dammit!"

Risa looms over a contrite but happy Mii-chan.

Koike: "Thank you, Risa. For getting them for me."

Asked why she talked to Mii-chan like that, Risa said she didn't know what kind of mood she was in.

Yone-san was like a quiet mother doing the household accounts, as the MCs said, as she sat there wearing glasses, probably doing homework.

Anyway, rich stuff. I had my doubts about the privacy-invasion of a hidden camera episode, but I knew that at least they wouldn't broadcast anything that would actually make the members look bad -- uncomfortable as some of it may have been for the members themselves. In fact, I think they're telling some members that they can be more like themselves in public. And some of hem -- maybe Suzumoto, Mona, Risa, Neru -- might be beginning to take the hint.

Neru says she's the same as always in the clip, but she has said elsewhere that she is coming to be able to be herself with the members, and maybe she can now start to be herself with the public, too. Although part of "herself" may be not entertaining the others all the time, as she is here, but quietly reading, etc.

In fact, I think I'm realizing that these are all entertainers. More of them than I thought have probably been the live-wire or comedian of their school classes, keeping everyone entertained with their patter.

The hidden camera worked in part because the staff had set the members up by trying it clumsily before and being discovered. Nijika even told everyone (on hidden camera) that they wouldn't try it again because they would expect the members to be on guard. A trap worthy of Zhuge Liang, as an on-screen title said (he was the supreme ancient military strategist, in China around 2000 years ago).