The Jests of King Mona
Kings, Aristocrats, Daimyous, Generalissimos, Emperors, Great Men...Keyakizaka46 cannot be commanded by even such powerful beings.
But before Shida Manaka, these girls become "playthings" and "prey." During the group's debut, the smiles were sealed away. But her miraculous full visage is now finally revealed: her unreasonable requests producing an infinity of smiles.
If it's fun
-- Last time, the plan was for Shida-san and Oda Nana to talk about "Watanabe Rika-san, the living being wrapped in mystery." That was the theme.
Shida: That's what I had understood. But when I saw the feature's title, I thought: "...what?"
-- You mean that the title became "Manaka's toy"?
Shida: "What's all this?" I thought. (Laughs.)
-- During the interview, we noticed that Shida-san toying with them was funny, and it made Watanabe-san and Oda-san funny. So we quickly changed the title.
Shida: Ahaha. So that's what it was.
-- When Oda-san was playing the game Shida-san invented, "Nantangaariku," she was completely Shida-san's toy! (Note: It was a game where Oda changed her facial expressions to match a rhythm laid down by Mona.)
Shida: At handshake events, it seems that Oda was asked to play Nantangaariku by guests who had seen the interview. But she didn't do it for them, apparently. Oda's fans came to where I was and asked me how to get her to do it (laughs).
-- Who have you been playing with recently?
Shida: Hmm. Who, I wonder? I asked (Saitou) Fuyuka to do something totally unreasonable: to do an impression of a Korean newscaster.
-- Like Nakagawa Reiji-san does?
Shida: Yes, yes. I fell in love with that and ended up wanting to see it done live. "Please, somebody do it!" I thought. I asked (Nagahama) Neru and (Watanabe) Risa , but Neru was terrible at it.
-- Ahaha. You got her to do it (laughs). Couldn't you do it yourself?
Shida: I can't do it. I was asked to do it, too, but I said I was the wrong person.
-- Like: "You do it yourself!"
 |
-- What sort of point of view is that! (laughs)
Shida: So I thought "It has to be Fuyuka." She's really good at it. I said: "With Korean like this, you could do the M-1!" (Laughs.) (Note: I don't know what M-1 and R-1 are.)
-- Leaving aside the fact that it would have to be the R-1. (laughs) Rather than playing with them, mostly what you're doing is making unreasonable requests.
Shida: That's true. My style is to take people who agree to do it and gradually get them to do more and more. Recently, when I was doing a video of Oda, because her face was looking upward, I said: "Please! From here on make it look as if you're drowning!"
-- I don't really understand what you mean (laughs).
Shida: I was shooting down from above. Oda's face was at the bottom of the screen. So I said to her: "Here it looks like the ocean, so please act like you're drowning."
-- Shida-san's creativity there was amazing.
Shida: I just want to do something funny.
-- On Keyakitte, Kakenai, Shida-san did voice-over to Oda-san's movements.
Shida: That was the squid game (laughs).
-- When I saw that, I thought Shida-san was a genius game-player.
Shida: Fufufu. I like things that are fun.
-- You want to make a fun atmosphere?
Shida: Uh-huh. If it's fun (laughs). Also, when members do funny things, I think: "I want to see this!" I want to see it and laugh. And I want to convey that humour to everyone.
-- You want to share your enjoyment with the members.
Shida: And if I do that, everyone will show me some little bit of humour. Kobayashi (Yui), in the middle of a program, found everyone's unmanageable tufts of hair funny, and told everyone about it in the program. It was an insignificant thing, but her seeing it then made it funny.
-- Who do you think are the funny members.
Shida: Kobayashi suddenly drily and flatly coming out with things is funny. And Suzumoto (Miyu) suddenly shouting something is really funny. She has been extremely funny in the past, too. She can suddenly start walking in a weird way, then just as suddenly act as if nothing had happened.
-- Haven't you ordered her around, too?
Shida: She just suddenly starts doing things on her own. But they're really funny. If I say "Do it again!" she'll start over again from the beginning.
-- "That was funny just now. Do it again from the beginning!" (Laughs)
Shida: In the dressing room and so on, I love it when she suddenly comes in the door. She seems to start just as she comes in. (Watanabe) Risa, too, asks her to please go back into the hall and come in again. (Laughs).
-- But you're the one who gets Watanabe-san to say it, aren't you?
Sunshine Moriya
-- So do the members respond to your unreasonable demands?
Shida: Yes, they do. Fuyuka, Oda, Berika (Watanabe Rika), do it a lot. And Moriya (Akane), too. Moriya is quite extreme. She does everything very seriously.
 |
| Moriya, Mona, Neru |
-- She responds with all her strength (laughs).
Shida: With super full strength (laughs).
-- Moriya-san has said she's the type of person who will say: "I'll do it."
Shida: She's quite scary. It's like: "I'm going to do this seriously. Okay?" (laughs)
-- She's pretty intense, isn't she.
Shida: If the members go out somewhere, and Moriya eats a dango, when we look at the photo later, she's really eating with all her might (laughs).
-- What do you mean?
Shida: Her face is like "this is so delicious!"
-- Intense like Sunshine Ikezaki: "This dango is terrific!" (laughs)
Shida: Ahahaha! Saying "Yaaay!"
-- A high-excitement self-introduction would be good.
Shida: Ahh! That... I want to do it! I really want to do it!
-- Sunshine Moriya (laughs).
Shida: Pretty wild. That's hilarious! Ahahaha! (laughs loudly)
Shida: I want to do it! Or rather, I want to get Fuyuka, Rika, and Moriya to do it. I'll make a video of them all going "Yaaay!"
-- I would definitely love to see that!
Shida: I'll put headbands on them. Then I want them to come "daaan!" out of a cardboard box. (laughs loudly) Ahahaha! Fantastic, what a laugh! Oh, I want to see that. Today I'll start working on Berika. I'll definitely get her to do it!
-- You're really itching to get them to do it, aren't you!
Shida: Let's go for Sunshine. I've got lots of videos of members doing things. Things that the outside world hasn't seen.
-- I'd like to see those on a DVD extras disk sometime.
Shida: I really want to make them into a DVD.
-- Do you have any other targets you want to get to do things?
Shida: Sasaki Kumi (Hiragana Keyaki) is really funny. Before, I took photos of Kumi-chan and Katoshi (Katou Shiho). Those two really got into doing funny faces. Come to think of it, Kumi-chan put Sunshine in her blog. Sunshine has to be part of it (laughs). I think Katoshi can do it, too.
-- You're getting Hiragana involved, now (laughs).
 |
| Mona feeling Memi's shaking jaw |
-- I didn't know that!
Shida: Depending on how much she likes someone, her jaw chatters: "guwaaa."
-- And if she really likes someone?
Shida: When I took a photo with her, her jaw was really shaking. When Moriya came around, and I took a photo hugging Agomi tight. Moriya looked like: "Me, too... I want to make her jaw shake!"
-- She really got into wanting to make her jaw chatter. (laughs)
Shida: But when Agomi-chan was taking a photo with Moriya, her jaw suddenly stopped shaking. (laughs).
-- She didn't fall in love with Moriya-san.
Shida: Moriya's expressions are so amusing. She overflows with transparency. Her face is so cute, but she's deadly serious about things. At the FNS Song Festival, she ran the 50 meters, you know. Before the show, she practiced running so many times.
-- She trained very seriously.
Shida: But in the training she ran against Berika! (laughs)
Cold-eyed Risa
-- I think Shida-san is a type that Nogizaka46 doesn't have. It's one of those "who's like who in Nogizaka46" things, but I don't think there's anyone who is like Shida-san.
Shida: I've thought a bit about that. Doesn't "being like" someone mean it's impossible to go further than the people who are there already?
-- Like doing a rehash version of the same movie.
Shida: But some people do say: "I want to be like that person."
-- Rather than that, you want your own individuality to be important?
Shida: I've sometimes wondered: "Wouldn't it be better if I was more idol-like?" But the members accept me, and fans say they like how I am, so I've come to think that I'm okay.
-- In any case, I think you have a marvelous skill at getting along with people -- you don't have any of that strange reticence, but you still don't get into conflicts.
Shida: What? In my life up to now, I feel as if I've been being over-cautious with people, and that we haven't been able to break through to what each other really meant. I've always thought it would be better if I could just be myself as I am, and if the other person could just receive me as they are.
-- I see. So from the start, you haven't been so cautious around the members?
Shida: At the beginning, I expected everyone to be more touchy, so I didn't talk much.
-- Just watching how things went?
Shida: Yes, like that. But contrary to what I expected, everything was peaceful. I guess that's why I can act like this now and everyone accepts me in a normal way.
-- I think it's Shida-san who made Keyakizak46 this way.
Shida: No, no. Everyone really is funny. So I can tell the members to do even the stupidest things.
-- Do you take the lead in doing these funny things at school, too?
Shida: No, not at all. If I did them there, everyone would normally say: "Isn't that awful?" And people would think they were being harmed. I'm really grateful to the members for letting me make them do these things, so far.
-- They brought together members who can really get into the mood.
Shida: I think it's just that our senses of humour are similar.
-- The exact opposite of Silent Majority. Laughs.
Shida: That gap is funny. I like that. I think almost all of us like that.
-- Really, the people Shida-san gives as examples of people who are funny -- Suzumoto-san, Kobayashi-san, Watanabe Risa-san -- are all people the outside world think of as having "adult" images.
Shida: The difference is huge. Suzumoto and the others are really funny!
-- When you interview her, she's serious, and gives the impression of always have a serious look.
Shida: True, true. (laughs) But when she shows her weird side, she's really funny. I really admire her ability to make that switch. I can't switch like that, I'm always normal. Suzumoto is great in that way.
 |
| Mona-Risa |
-- How do you play with Watanabe-san?
Shida: Berisa has great expressions.
-- Even with those looks?
Shida: Yes, that's her gap (laughs). She can look so beautiful, but have such a cold expression. I can ask Risa to come in the door and dance with a cold look. (laughs)
-- The members don't bring out this side of themselves in public, though.
Shida: No, I guess they don't. Maybe they're afraid of going too far. (laughs).
-- All the members will definitely do what Shida-san demands of them, will they?
Shida: Because I just keep on saying "Do it!" (laughs). But I don't ask people who wouldn't enjoy it to do these things.
-- People who trust you that it will be funny will do it, I guess.
Shida: And also because I laugh even at weird things. Even failing can be funny. When Moriya fails -- fails even when she tries seriously to do something -- it's very funny (laughs).
-- And there are lots of original things like "Nantangaariku." Have you always liked to think up things like that?
Shida: No, didn't used to have any friends who would do things like that.
-- You didn't have friends you could tell to do things?
Shida: I didn't think people would see the humour. But every so often I would bring out something like that and people would say, "That's funny," and I would think: "Ah, it worked!" (laughs)
-- You weren't a funny character at school?
Shida: No way! I was called strange, but never funny.
-- Keyakizaki46 brought out a dormant sense. I would like to see a plan where Shida-san made this talent a feature.
Shida: I'd like to do it. Or rather, I'd like to make the members do it!
-- Shida Manaka Presents (laughs).
Shida: Yes! Yes!
-- Could you bring together a senbatsu and discuss a plan?
-- What? Is that so?
Shida: I'd select models and go to used clothing stores and choose clothes. And do photos of this kind of thing. And I'd include the Sunshine Moriya DVD as an extra. (laughs)
-- That's like a producer.
Shida: I've been finding that kind of thing interesting recently. Getting the members to do various things.
-- Like Tamura Atsushi in London Boots.
Shida: Ahahaha!
-- Sending out commands as a form of blackmail.
Shida: If it would be fun (laughs). Sunshine... Let's hurry and make the film....
-- You're itching to go again, aren't you? (laughs)
Shida: Ahaha. I've laughed a lot. If I laugh this much now, seeing it in real life might be unbearable.
-- Maybe you'd laugh yourself to death. (laughs)
Shida: Really (laughs). I do want to get her to do Sunshine.
-- I'm looking forward to it. I hope you'll do more funny things from now on.
Shida: I will. Fufufu (laughs)
_______________________________________________________
-- Bubka Magazine, March 2017 amazon Japan Bubka Web
-- photos/ Yamada Ryouka, interview and text/ Miyata Eiichirou. Tokyo January12, 2017
-- only the first and last photos are from the Bubka piece. I've added the others.
No comments:
Post a Comment