Kakizaki Memi blog: Staring at you. Flower-stories. 6th single comes out today.

Camellia Tree

Kakizaki Memi
2018.03.07


Good evening,
It's Kakizaki Memi.

Today is release day for
The 6th single, Garasu wo Ware!

Hiragana Keyakizaka46's Ima ni Miteiro is included on Type-B
And the Hiragana Keyaki 1gens' video extra is on Type-C

Please get them at your local CD shop

Please be good to me <(_ _*)>

The Hiragana Keyaki 1gens' video extra
Is like a collection of short films in which each member portrays the flower-story of their birth flower

The setting of my video extra
Is a girl staring at the one she loves.
I actually do have the tendency to stare at people ( *´•ω•`*)

The members who've seen my video extra
Are always calling me "Memi-jan," lol. [this refers to her staring; see explanation later]


Everyone is terribly cute.
Please be sure to watch the 1gens video extras (*˙˘˙*)

Staaare...

If I keep looking at the sun, I actually start to sneeze.

Bye-bye

Kakizaki Memi

_________________________________________________

posted 180307  13:35h

The word used for continuous staring is "jii". The honorific "-chan" is spelled "chi-an" in Japanese. Spelling it "ji-an" makes it hint at staring. So in a way the other members are calling Memi "stare-chan."

This pleases me tremendously, since I think one of Memi's most effective abilities is the ability to look straight into the camera and make a direct, eye-to-eye, connection with each member of the audience. No other member gives me that impression, or at least not often. With Memi, it's normal. It was one of the things that made me notice her in the original auditions, and I'm happy she has not lost it. It makes her seem as if she is really there, not just performing. Although she is definitely performing in that full staring pic, lol.

I love the photos in this post, weird as the staring one is. The photos have been noticed in the Japanese fandom, too.

In the video, Memi's flower appears to be the Himesara 姫沙羅 or "Stewartia monadelpha." It's a tallish flowering tree related to magnolias and camellias. There are a couple of pics here. The title of the post is "Himesara." I translated it "camellia tree" to give some impression of what it looks like. But this is not listed anywhere I can see as the Japanese birth flower for December, and it actually blooms in July-August....

One thing about this post disappoints me: that Memi only mentions the song and video she is in herself, and makes no mention of the 2gens. I resent their success, too, but the future is a merged group, and the quicker the two groups can get together the better. I really don't like the way management is making a point of keeping these two small groups apart. Management should be trying to help these 20 people get as close as the Kanjis are. And Memi should make more effort, too. They are going to have to live together for years, and the more friendship and less mutual resentment the better.

I also do worry that Memi is beginning to be insecure enough that her eyes are getting the pleading note that a lot of idols' eyes seem to get, and which I don't much like. But idols' dependence on the whims of the audience makes that kind of insecurity hard to avoid. From the time of the auditions, I liked my feeling that Memi had some kind of inner stability that gave her a deep confidence, even when she was not confident about doing particular things. However, maybe that was more her outstanding Japanese ability to hide her feelings, since she has said how insecure she felt and feels.

Here are some more stills from the video extra:

Throughout her post, Memi refers to Hiragana as けやき坂46 -- "Keyakizaka46" spelled out in hiragana. Translating it fully as "Hiragana Keyakizaka46" seemed a bit much in English, so I have shortened it to "Hiragana Keyaki" in most cases.