17 comments on “Morning Musume 20th Anniversary Official Book Interviews: Tanaka Reina

  1. Observed: Tsunku was a genius a picking girls whose essential characters never changed, even after many years. It’s gratifying how much Reina’s interview is like Iida’s.

  2. I’ve always liked Reina, she would probably have a spot in my top 10 Idols of all Time, but I probably loved her the most the year or 2 just before graduation. The 9th and 10th gen (mainly Maa-chan) broke down the Great Wall of Reina which had stood for so long and made Reina see the group as family instead of just coworkers. She looked like she was having the most fun she had ever had and was genuinely happy to be around and involved with the other members. Kind of hoped she would postpone the graduation for at least another year and Graduate alongside Shige sama.

    Pretty cool to find out how hard Tsunku sama fought to keep Reina around and at least still part of the music business. This was the girl who he once stated to be the closest to being a perfect idol, she was his ideal of what an idol was supposed to be. Its highly likely that the only reason she failed the 5th gen auditions was because she was too young, we almost had a world without the legendary 6th gen trio.

    • Sure. I mean, there’s a long form H!P interview published every month in the CD Journal magazine for instance. This book might interest you — it’ll get you a shitload (600 pages!) of interviews from everyone. http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/NEOBK-2093190

      (If your second question is “are you going to translate anything like that?,” the answer is no, I don’t have any such plans at the moment.)

      • It’s a shame you only translate a lot of stuff from the most boring group with the laziest most personalityless idols who are given everything but still suck.

        • Tell you what, Anonymous. Personality-wise, I like all H!P groups equally as much, so find me an interview from your favorite group that’s as good as this one and I’ll be glad to do it. I’m always interested in having more quality content to translate.

    • https://youtu.be/mtFzafY2s9k?feature=shared
      – this song fits Reina
      – her singing style is the same as Tsunku’s, but in the last line she sounds like Sakura who originally sings that line
      – her voice improved more than anyone else in the agency and very hearably she is the most skilled singer in UFA now
      – not just in the agency, she learned so many vocal techniques and decorations she became one of the most skilled vocalists i ever heard in pop music, at the moment her voice sounds more controlled in live than in H!P records

    • Exactly. Reina always seemed like the tuff one who considered her fellow MM members as rivals. (She even mentioned this at Ai’s graduation.) Then we read interviews like this and she is so warm and endearing.

      I missed her performance in San Francisco because UF did all their promotions in Japanese at the time. I learned about her concert with only 12 hrs before it started. IF I had another 8 hrs lead time, I could have made it.

    • Reina auditioned because she wanted to meet Gotou Maki. She didn’t worry that she would be found out because it was her anticipation that she would not make it past the first round. But, as she continued to progress her anxiety grew so that when she made the finals she knew she had to confess because the finals were going to be televised and people from her home town would be certain to rat her out.

  3. Well to me that delinquent character is one of the reasons why Reina is one of the coolest idol ever(and the most beautiful to boot). Lot of my favorites seem to share this edgy/cool/hooligan whatever is the best word to describe that trait. It’s not hard to believe she is shy too. She definitely put a lot of effort since she takes care of every little detail.

    Things about Tsunku’s music is always fun to read from H!P members. Shabondama is my favorite MM song, happy it’s special to Reina. I personally prefer brighter songs like her, RR21 for example gets me pumped/motivated.

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