Kakizaki Memi SHOWROOM video -- Magia Record starts Friday

Another wonderful Showroom from Memi, who seems to be more mature and capable every time I see her -- but still so natural and real.

She shepherded Techi through that "Selfie TV" feature from the new release, contributing a lot to Keyakizaka, I believe. They are friends, and perhaps that was the only way Techi would happily make such a feature. I don't want to overestimate the possibility of romance, but it sure was great to see Memi practicing her heavy-hitting embraces on Techi.

Now here's Memi, probably forced to do a SHOWROOM to advertise the upcoming Magia Record stage play. Memi seems to like to concentrate on her singing and dancing and acting. She blogs and messages more than Techi or Suzumoto, but not as much as most members.

Her last SHOWROOM was almost two months ago. For a fan such as me, every one is gold. I much prefer her quietness and calm to the more talkative and  "entertaining" SHOWROOMS others do.







Memi herself probably still feels, as she did from the start, that she is not entertaining enough in comparison with others. Not so, Memi, not so. Natural Memi has things others don't. I have always felt that, even when she feels nervous on the surface, there is some deep-seated sense of security in her that allows her to remain calm, and to communicate a feeling of calmness to others.

The show was only a half-hour long, but Memi seemed awfully together. There was so much to say about the play that she only got to say "What will I talk about?" a couple of times, lol. I think acting agrees with her. She said she wasn't nervous during the audition for the role of Iroha, but just enjoyed it. As a comment somewhere said, her presence felt calm and healing.

I don't think she's worried about her performance in Magia Record. She seemed pretty confident to me. There will be singing, she said. She said that practicing the fighting scenes made her muscles sore, but she said that the fighting is pretty kakkoii.

She didn't speak about the Techi video, but I wonder if succeeding in helping get Techi to do it, and shepherding her through it, made her feel like an important and responsible member of the organization, and gave her more confidence and maturity. She may have gained points with management by doing it, I think.

She said she got closer with Nibu Akari during the rehearsals.

Great half-hour, for me. So natural and real. A bit over 17,000 viewers in a poorly advertised half-hour. There was quite a crowd waiting when it started. She was embarrassed at not having written a blog post recently, and said she would. She is still terrible at advertising herself: she just announced this Showroom a very few hours before it started. I don't mind her concentrating on her actual work and leaving the advertising to others.

Here's a gif from the show that I found on 5channel (the somewhat reformed 2channel):

Memi is more confident with those winks than she was at first, but she still ends in a laugh, nervous or otherwise. The wink isn't serious, but for me Memi has the knack of looking straight into the camera in a way that makes you feel she is actually making contact with the audience.

Kosaka Nao does that, too, now. I think she may have picked it up from Memi. Personally, I see (justifiable) fear in the eyes of many idols. I think only idols with inner confidence can look straight into camera as intimately as Memi and Nao do.

Magia Record begins its run on Friday, and will continue until 9 September. Memi stars as Tamaki Iroha. The cast is entirely made up of Hiragana members: Memi, Sasaki Mirei, Tomita Suzuka, Watanabe Miho, Ushio Sarina, Nibu Akari, Kawata Hina, Saitou Kyouko, Kanemura Miku and Katou Shiho (in the order given in publicity for the play).