Kakizaki Memi interview: "Yurina and I"

Yurina and I

A world of their own, where the two are neither "members" nor "classmates."

With her dainty frame and good looks, she seems like a doll. But Kakizaki Memi's appeal does not lie in that alone. In fact, she bears a strong will and is fighting to succeed as an idol. Doesn't it seem almost inevitable that she would become friends with that other straight-ahead girl? Is it Kakizaki Memi's reality that only Hirate Yurina is reflected in her eyes?

Kakizaki: I think all of us have thought about what the meaning of our group's existence is. Actually, right around the start we talked about whether we wanted to get into Kanji Keyaki or work on as members of Hiragana Keyaki. I said: "I want to keep working hard as I am, in Hiragana Keyaki."

-- Why?

Kakizaki: Simply because I love the twelve members of Hiragana Keyaki and want to keep on doing lots of activities with them. Working hard at this is something we all talk about.

-- I think it was a wonderful thing that Kakizaki-san joined Hiragana Keyaki. A stoic person who hates to lose and is starting from behind: that's an intense scenario.

Kakizaki: Yes, that's true. Now we're just, like: "Let's do it!"
 

Two people's friendship

-- There's another topic today: Hirate Yurina. Kakizaki-san and Hirate-san are good friends. How did that come about?

Kakizaki: First was after the Ariake Coliseum live. Yurina suddenly came up and hugged me from behind. I really loved Yurina, and I was so shocked that I started to cry and my jaw began shaking (laughs). That shrank the distance between us just a bit.

Next was in April, at the time of the anniversary live, when Yurina was backstage standing by. I suddenly found myself really wanting to hug her (laughs). Should I do it or not? Nagaru (Nagahama Neru) was there and I discussed it with her: I told her I wanted to hug Yurina, what should I do?

-- That's a very straightforward discussion (laughs).

Kakizaki: (Chuckles.) "It's fine, go ahead," she said. Nagaru gave me that push in the back and I hugged Yurina (laughs).

-- What was Hirate-san's reaction?

Kakizaki: She was really surprised. "Ehh? Who is it?" she said (laughs). In fact, Nagaru had told me before that Yurina had said she wanted to be friends with me. After that, when we were together at a handshake event, I was able to talk with Yurina-chan during the breaks. She said to call her "Yurina," and I got used to us being friends.

-- So you started seeing each other after you began calling Hirate-san "Yurina." I don't think any of the other members call Hirate-san "Yurina." It gives it a feeling of being special. By the way, did you already know each other's contact info?

Kakizaki: We did. But we just used it for social arrangements like "Do you want to go to eat sometime?" "Yes, I do!"


-- I see. From our talk today, I think the two of you definitely have compatible personalities. Both of you seem to like to make clear, black-and-white distinctions. You're both pretty straightforward, aren't you? Many people call Hirate-san a genius and say she's the second coming of Yamaguchi Momoe. Not many people suddenly come up from behind and hug her, I wouldn't think. It must have made Hirate-san happy.

Kakizaki: I came to really, really want to hug her (laughs).

-- The heart is strong (laughs).

Kakizaki: Yes. But our schedules hardly ever worked. "Okay, this Sunday is free. Where shall we go?"

-- That's the time you mentioned in your blog that you went to Starbucks? To someone the same age, like Kakizaki-san, what feeling does Hirate-san give?

Kakizaki: She's extremely straightforward. She'll suddenly text: "I want to see you." She's so cute. Terribly cute. Kind of like wanting attention. She'll contact me with stamps I don't understand (laughs). And both of us totally love sweets.... Anyway, she's cute (laughs).

-- That's two girls the same age, eh. Have you made promises to go places?

Kakizaki: The next time we're both free, we say we'll definitely go to Disney.

-- That's a place to go, for sure! What do you normally talk about?

Kakizaki: We really just talk about trivial stuff. We did talk about Keyakizaka once, but I don't think we've spoken about it again.

-- Why not?

Kakizaki: It's ever since Yurina said: "Memi is someone who feels like a friend."

-- I see. What a lovely relationship. Her saying that made you happy, didn't it.

Kakizaki: I was very happy. So we really just have normal conversations (laughs). Recently, Yurina said: "I want to go to the zoo." But I said: "I'd rather to go to the aquarium." "So what should we do?" We ended up going to both. (laughs)

-- You sound like a couple." (laughs) That reminds me. I heard the School of Lock (Tokyo FM) radio show when Hirate-san's voice returned and they called Kakizaki-san. I ended up crying, too.

Kakizaki: That time, when I got the call from Yurina, I cried and cried. Ever since we had become friends, she hadn't been able to speak, so we were used to talking using a phone. Not long before her voice returned, I had said to her: "If Yurina's voice comes back, I'll seem like some suspicious interloper." She replied: "Ehh. Stop it!" Soon after that I got the phone call. I was so surprised.

Yurina is straightforward

But extremely cute and a bit naive.

Being told "Memi is someone who feels like a friend" made me very happy. 

So we don't talk about work at all.

-- Since the phone call, have you been doing things together?

Kakizaki: We've gone out to eat (laughs). Because Yurina really wanted it, we ordered ice-cream to eat while we were looking at the menu. We ate ice cream and looked at the menu and talked about what we wanted to eat....

-- You had ice cream first? How stoic! (laughs).

Kakizaki: (chuckles) I ordered a hamburger and Yurina ordered pasta.

-- How youthful! Your relationship will make fans' hearts beat faster, I think. What is the normal Hirate-san like?

Kakizaki: Actually, she's pretty naive. Recently there was a soup with chick peas in it. The description said "with chicks in it." I understood what they meant, but Yurina really believed it had chicks in it and was shocked. She was cute. (laughs)

-- Hahaha! So, do you tease her?

Kakizaki: I do. Recently Yurina had blue colour contacts in. She was very happy with them and said: "They're stylish, aren't they?" I teased her by saying they looked scary. (laughs)

-- Hirate-san is really cute. (laughs) Next time, please arrange for us to interview both of you!


interview 4 July, in Tokyo

Kakizaki Memi 
Born 2 December 2001. From Nagano. You can't tell by looking at her, but she is really a princess who refuses to lose. In her blog she says that her favorite fairy tale is Red Shoes. My goodness. You think what a cute story this seems and carelessly start reading it, but then your eyes are full of tears. Watch out! Nickname: "Memi."

LIVE
The Hiragana Keyaki National Tour 2017 is ongoing, to great acclaim. The next performance will be 26 September on Hokkaido, at Zepp Sapporo. For detail, consult the Keyakizaka46 official site.
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Thanks to @toomuchidea for the Japanese text. She has done her own summary/translation. A more efficient way to go, but I wanted to do a full translation of this highly anticipated interview. I'm translating all of Memi's blog posts and as many interviews as I can, storing up a source of information for when more people have realized what a fascinating person she is. Yurina has. Lol.

We still haven't heard from Yurina about all this. I take what Memi says at face value, but Yurina may or may not be comfortable with making this the basis of publicity, rather than just a private friendship. But I can easily see Hirate liking to have a friend who (a) is not older than her, so doesn't have that built-in superiority, and can be led around a bit; and (b) is someone who can still joke around with her. I believe Memi loves to tease. And loves to hug people.

Here's my previous blog post about the radio show on which Yurina's voice returned when they called Memi on the phone.

A couple of translation notes: when the interviewer says how "stoic" it is to eat ice cream before a main course, I don't know if he's implying that it isn't stoic at all, or that Memi is stoic to accept such a suggestion.

And I found difficult the passage I've translated, "Just before her voice had returned, I had said to her: 'If Yurina's voice comes back, I'll seem like some suspicious interloper.' She replied: 'Ehh. Stop it!'" @toomuchidea has a very different take on it. I've based mine on the word キョドる, which I didn't know but is given as meaning "act suspiciously," and is said to be slang arising around the turn of this century.

I added the photo of Yurina hugging Memi, and the famous photo of them out together to eat, during the period when Hirate couldn't speak out loud. The other two, with Memi in uniform, are from the interview.

Memi is late with her current blog post. She hasn't put one out since the weekend handshake event, which Yurina did not attend due to illness. This is pure fantasy, but I'm imagining Memi busy in Yurina's room, looking after her.