Aki-P once again compares Hirate with Yamaguchi Momoe

Akimoto Yasushi

There's some reaction to a recent interview with Aki-P in which he once again compares Hirate Yurina with the great idol Yamaguchi Momoe.

It's from a series of TV conversations called:
Special conversation - Matayoshi Naoki's "Performers I want to meet before I die," #3: Akimoto Yasushi

...
Matayoshi: In comedians, the standard is basically "are they funny or not?" But when it comes to entertainment talents, there are lots of cute and lots of cool ones. What rule is there for deciding whether they will sell or not?

Akimoto: ...Umm. Probably having things read into them.

Matayoshi: By the people seeing them?

Akimoto: Yes. So, for example, Hirate in Keyakizaka46 or Yamaguchi Momoe, people like that, somehow make you read too much into every little thing they do. Such as when they look downcast.

Matayoshi: They are not ordinary people.

Akimoto: Yes, exactly.
...
source

Aki-P has said this before: that Hirate is someone special, someone whom you can't help reading things into.



"The centre, Hirate, has a lot of attention focused on her, and in fact I think she is amazing. Having had 40 years of seeing people called stars, I realize one can read too much into people, but she's a star. In normal life, Hirate may be an ordinary 15-year-old, but in Silent Majority, the power of her eyes, and the way she brushed her hair aside and kept on looking at the camera, etc. -- those things excited the audience's imagination. In general, all entertainment has to fulfill the audience's imagination. And for a creator, too, having a resource like Hirate to use makes the breadth of imagination even greater. I think she has that kind of appeal." (From this post here last year.)

Matayoshi Naoki

Matayoshi Naoki is a comedian and novelist whom Neru has mentioned liking. Here's a link to the Amazon page for the magazine the interview is in. And here's a translation of the post where Neru mentions loving his writing.

Akimoto Yasushi is the lyricist and producer of Keyakizak46, Nogizaka46, AKB48, etc., etc., and one of the richest and most powerful men in Japanese show business.

Yamaguchi Momoe was an idol, singer and actress who was the most popular figure in Japanese entertainment in the 1970s. She started at age 14 and retired to marry her co-star when she was 21 and has never made a public appearance since. Last spring, asked what she thought she would be doing when she was 20, Hirate said she thought she would be married. Perhaps she was thinking of Momoe.


As for reading too much into Techi, I definitely have that tendency. It's good this interview came along. Have to think about whether it's just reading a lot into her or actually reading too much into her. Both, at different times, I suppose.