Kosaka Nao: Hiragana Keyaki's new centre?

Translation of a Yahoo Japan "Real Music" column, posted this week.
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Hiragana Keyaki: will 2nd-generation member Kosaka Nao become centre? 

-- My feelings after seeing the TV ad featuring their new song Joyful Love.

Hiragana Keyaki’s new song, Joyful Love, is being used in the new Mechakari ad now on air. Mechakari is a fashion rental app that Keyakizaka46 were image characters for. Now it is Hiragana Keyaki in a “Mechakari x Hiragana Keyakizaka46” collaboration.

Hiragana 2nd-generation member Kosaka Nao 小坂菜緒 acts as the main figure in the ad. Fans are asking: “Is Kosaka finally centre?” Her overwhelming visuals have had people calling her the next centre right from her debut. So I thought I would look into Kosaka’s appeal.

Kosaka is from Osaka, and is now 16 years old and in first-year high-school. When she was in third-year middle-school, they were recruiting additional members for Hiragana Keyaki. She applied, and became a Hiragana 2nd-generation member.

This summer, in a TV ad for the Sakamichi General Audition she said: “I’m shy, and before, I was not very good at coming forward and talking with people. I applied to join because I wanted to change.” In her blog just after the end of their first performances in the national tour, she said: “The first thing I did was go to see Hiragana Keyaki sing and dance at a performance in Osaka. They were so cool. I was moved to tears. Right then I got the idea of standing on the same stage with them. I had the strong feeling: ‘I want to become part of Hiragana Keyaki.’ And I decided to apply.”

Finally, she said: “I have no regrets about joining Hiragana Keyaki. And I don’t expect to have any. I love Hiragana Keyaki.” She delivered these words in a voice overflowing with Hiragana love.

Right from the time she was accepted, many fans were immediately captivated by her beauty. But the true extent of her potential wasn’t revealed until Re:Wind, the spin-off from the group’s TV drama Re:Mind (TV Tokyo). After a flashback to the original drama, she begins, looking directly into the camera in the manner of a self-introduction: “How do you do. I’m Kosaka Nao. People say I seem cool, and well-behaved, but I’m actually just timid and scared.” At that point, right after her debut, Kosaka was already developing as an idol, and although she still had a long way to go, she was becoming the main character in the story. Management placed a lot of hope in her talent, and she played the role well.

You can see Kosaka’s coolness especially in performance. In the 2nd-generation members' song Hanbun no Kioku, which Kosaka centers, her crisp appearance and sharp gaze are overwhelming, and give a feeling of charisma.  Talking about this Kosaka, Watanabe Miho says: “She sees a lot. Even though she’s one of the younger 2gens, she discovers all kinds of things around her. Mentally, she's older than I am.... She’s only 15, so she has cute aspects, too. She’s a real Kansai person, and makes funny comments.” (Bubka magazine, August 2018) But Matsuda Konoka says (on Showroom): “Among the 2gens, she’s the most dependent-acting. She makes unreasonable, almost sadistic demands on people.” She made even clearer the fact that Kosaka’s coolness starts from shyness.

Last May, Kosaka became the first member of Hiragana to be an exclusive model for Seventeen magazine. And she made her first appearance on the runway at Rakuten GirlsAward 2018 SPRING/SUMMER. Her activities suddenly took a step up. And at the same time, her closeness with the other members deepened, and the impression she gave became less cool and more cute every day.

This was especially true this summer: on the group’s regular TV show, Hiragana Oshi, as her friends Iguchi Mao and Miyata Manamo drew out Kosaka’s cuteness in the show’s "Snack Mao" feature; and also in her own Showroom broadcast, where she complied without hesitation with all kinds of requests, singing songs and assuming cute poses with apparent enjoyment. She likes dinosaurs, and revealed that she had once spent 30 minutes telling friends about them. Her real humanity began to shine out.

Hiragana 2gen members (l-r) Nibu Akari (I think), Watanabe Miho, Kosaka Nao, Kanemura Miku

In an interview in BLT Graph about a year after she joined the group, she said: “It seems to me that my way of thinking has changed. Things that I thought of as minuses now seem like pluses.” She admitted that she previously liked being alone, and didn’t talk to anyone. But as the members talked to her, she gradually came to talk to them. It was deeply moving to hear her say that the “Hiragana Keyaki” Kosaka had changed because of her relationship with the other members.

Kosaka’s popularity has risen not just among fans but among teen girls, and she is featured in the Mechakari TV ad we mentioned before. For the new song Joyful Love, the members perform in colorful outfits, and the sudden image of Kosaka’s gentle smile makes a strong impression. Hiragana does not have a fixed centre, but from this commercial, it seems that Kosaka may have become the first 2^nd generation member to centre a song, as many people have hoped and expected.

On the 26^th of this month at Budoukan, Hiragana will perform in the Hot Stuff Promotion 40th Anniversary MASAKA event. Will Joyful Love get its first performance at that place which holds such fond memories for Hiragana? And who will be centre? That’s what we wonder. 

And in the Sakamichi groups’ combined stage play Zambi, Kosaka is part of the Hiragana contingent. Next we look forward to seeing the quality of her acting.

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I have an admission to make. I watched large parts of Nao-chan's original Showroom auditions, and ended up not liking her at all. I recognized her singing talent, but she seemed so calculated and artificial, and her personality seemed cold and proud. And I didn't even find her as beautiful as everyone else seemed to. However, I have gradually been won over, as I realized that her apparent coolness probably actually does come from being timid and shy. It probably makes sense to me because I was like that myself, at her age: shy, but giving an impression of pride, as self-protection. Moreover, by watching more of her performances, I have seen her real talent: and if a performance is good enough, I don't care much what the performer is like as a person, anyway.

Now that it appears she really is about to become centre, as everyone has long expected, I am making my own final push to understand her better and appreciate her more.

The first stage in this process was watching her performances in the live in-studio versions of Hiragana songs shown on Hiragana Oshi TV shows over the past couple of months. Her singing, dancing and expressiveness were all excellent. But this piece above, and some of her blog posts, also make me feel a lot more well-disposed toward her as a person.

I have always thought Zai Senretsu e, the 2gens' song centred by Nao-chan, was one of the best on Hiragana's album. And her sharp performance in the studio live simply added to my appreciation.

And now we have her Thursday blog post, to which she gives the title (short, for her):

"Twenty vivid colours mingled together is now Hiragana's colour. And I in my dreamed-of aqua...." 

(鮮やかな20色が混ざり合うとひらがなけやきの色になる。私は夢の水色で、、、)

I love the concept.

The photos in this post are mainly from Nao's Thursday blog post, except for the group shot in a cafe (Urth Caffe Omotesando) and the cheek-puffed photo, which are from other Nao posts.

In only a few hours, we will know whether Joyful Love really does get its first performance at Budoukan Friday night -- and who the centre is. 



Here's an example of a recent Nao-chan Showroom broadcast, from September 14th. She is so different from her auditions a year earlier: more naturally sure of herself, more relaxed, less calculated, more human.