24 comments on “Morning Musume 20th Anniversary Official Book Interviews: Morito Chisaki

  1. not to mince words but wouldn’t Miki Fujimoto be the first “concurrent” member technically? Meaning she was already an established H!P soloist…and then was added to the group to boost the groups popularity during a time when it had started to wane.

    • Miki, Konno Asami, and Rika were also “concurrent” members of Country Musume, not officially but they did record with them and to PV’s.

      • Miki stopped her solo activities after getting into Morning Musume. Also Ishikawa, Konno and Fujimoto were Country Musume’s concurrent members (or borrowed, if we’re specific). If they were in the same situation as Morito, MM wouldve been called Morning Musume ni Morito Chisaki (Country Girls).

  2. Hm. Chisaki is a nice girl, but… that’s it. There’s literally nothing that makes her stand out. Nothing she aces. Nothing that she is really bad at either – except maybe that she’s not extroverted but that doesn’t count.

    This all translates into this interview (not your translation Henkka, thanks for your work! Your translations are great and I love reading them, especially to see how differently the girls think!):

    Chisaki is not confident. That’s fine. But the whole interview is about how many things MM members have to learn, how hard their dances are (they are quite hard but they’re not the hardest in the industry, let’s not kid ourselves), how great their singing is (debatable.), how everybody is so “cool”. The history of MM which has been repeated to the max for the last few months. This doesn’t even feel like an interview, it’s more like a mashup of last year’s interviews for the anniversary.

    The only interesting part was the one with Momochi.

    • >called that “”””””””””””guy”””””””””

      Sure, sweetie. Just admit you hate girls that are cute.

      • I actually do like cute girls. I just think she doesn’t add anything to the group and wonder why she has been chosen for a line-up that already has too many girls to begin with.

        • 90% of the girls in MM are boring, ugly, and untalented. Leftovers from Tsunku’s hubris when he thought could make the most potato girls into idols. Only recently have they started to repair the damage by putting actual good girls into the group. Too bad these potato girls are such bad examples and bad senpai for the new girls to follow. Worthless and lazy, but luckily their time is coming to an end in the next few years.

            • If you actually followed idols and didn’t just use them as a fashion accessory you’d already know which ones I’m talking about.

              • What the fuck are you even talking about? In what part of the world is liking idols ever considered some hip, fashionable thing?

                /jp/ is really starting to leak.

          • Forgive me for feeding into this, but some thoughts:

            There are 11 members of MM. By your math, whether it was meant precisely or approximately, 10 of those members are “boring, ugly and untalented.” Yet is this actually true?

            FUKUMURA has a commanding voice, with more than enough power to pull off the more vocally demanding songs in MM’s catalogue. She has a matronly beauty which many people find appealing. Perhaps she is a little boring, but doesn’t that come from being MM’s leader?

            IKUTA has always tried her damnedest to be better at what she isn’t good at, and is brilliant at what she is (physical power and precision of movement). From a western POV Ikuta is beautiful like an old 50’s movie star. Perhaps she was a bit annoying at the beginning of her time in MM, but doesn’t that come from having to establish herself against better than half of the Platinum era when she joined?

            ISHIDA is a brilliant dancer. She’s also gorgeous. Perhaps she is a little calculating (stories about how different she is when she’s “on” vs. “off”), but isn’t that a fair trade given how she had to carry MM from one stage of its development as a group to another (re: formation dances)?

            SATO confounds expression. She’s likely taken over at least a small part of MM’s musical direction (as a producer without credit) and will likely be the first member who, upon graduation, moves into that position officially. The grace in her dancing is sometimes breathtaking. She is also gorgeous. Perhaps her idiosyncracies were/are a bit much for some people to take, but can you really call that boring?

            ODA is another of MM’s most capable and musically diverse voices. She is also unusually pretty, in the sense that in looking at the proportions and architecture of her face and body one cannot help but stare at her. Perhaps she is/was a bit shy in establishing herself as a visible presence in the group, but how is modesty, when it comes from purity, ever boring?

            NONAKA follows Ikuta’s lead as another member who tries her best to contribute her best to a group she loves. I think she’s simply extremely cute but some people think she’s quite pretty. Like Sayu, perhaps she cannot sing as well as she should, but doesn’t her determination to contribute and try make up for that?

            MAKINO is MM’s hidden ace. She is a committed and capable dancer. She is also unquestionably beautiful. As with Oda, perhaps her “good girl” character inhibits her from being more present in the group, but how is modesty, when it comes from purity, ever boring?

            AKANE reminds me of a combination of Nacchi and Tsuji. As young as she is she knows who she is and where she stands in MM. She is another matronly beauty that some find quite appealing. Perhaps she is a bit undefined as a member, but could that not be a form of appropriate respect for her place?

            KAGA is MM’s hidden beauty. Like Ikuta and Nonaka, she earrnestly tries her best to contribute her best. She’s doubly enchaning inasmuch as she is just as lovely inside (determination is a beautiful thing in a young woman) as she is outside. She is a capable dancer whose strength of movement could easly become masculine but does not. Perhaps her approach to thinking about MM might seem detached or cold, but isn’t it helpful to have members who understand their role in MM’s bigger picture?

            YOKOYAMA is enchanting. In spite of all the darkness she’s faced she still finds pure, cute joy to put in her dancing and her voice. Perhaps she hasn’t established herself enough as a presence in MM, but given her newness to the group and everything besides, can you blame her?

            MORITO is another hidden beauty. She is a capable singer and extremely capable dancer who seems to have taken Riho’s place as Ishida’s go-to partner. She’s the only person who has ever been essentially drafted into MM, and in spite of the fact that she didn’t like it (consider what it meant that Fukumura CRIED after telling Chi she’d be placed in MM, and not out of joy) she’s found a place for herself in the group. Perhaps she’s calculating, but again, given her newness and everything besides, can you blame her?

            For some, “Tsunku’s hubris” is exactly what makes MM such an endearing and appealing group to follow. Idols by definition risk becoming vapid, plastic illusions and parodies of femininity when they’re overproduced. Those 11 imo-poi who call themselves Morning Musume are for some lovely because they are so imo-poi–perfect because of, not in spite of, all of ther imperfections and humanity.

            Perhaps there’s some merit to all this?

            • I think you’re overestimating Masaki’s power a bit…
              And actually, all those “hidden beauties” are exactly what I meant. There’s too many girls at the moment so that only maybe 3-5 can shine the way they’re capable of. Ikuta, Akane, Kaede… they’re all great girls but they vanish behind the front girls, without a chance to ever get the spotlight – see Ikuta, who has been a back girl with not a single lead for herself for 8 years now.

        • I’m not a Chisaki fan and still, I think she adds more to the group than other recent girls. She might not be the best in any aspect, but she is competent in everything.
          Also, she was very popular in CG and now that she is in MM she has even more fans, that alone is more than enough to justify her been part of the group.

    • Pssst, while you feel nothing stand out from her, he backstabbing everyone oh her way up as MM’s #1 Her current only rival is that Maachan.

      heh
      :P

  3. Up until now I haven’t been very interested in Morito but she seems like a nice girl and this interview has made me want to pay closer attention to her going forward.

  4. Looking at Chii now, I kind of wonder how she failed that 12th gen audition, she’s got potential to be a complete idol package, like the type to me that can be able to do anything. But failing that audition was probably a blessing cause she got to spend some time with one of the greatest idols of all time. Those few years with Momo did so much for not only her, but Funaki and Yanagawa as well. They learned not only how to be an idol but how to be entertaining and unique which is probably the most important thing, those 3 are so good at drawing attention their way and that’s key to surviving in the competitive idol world. To bad Yanamin is graduating but Funaki and Chii are going to become key pillars in H!P’s future, they’re 2 i’m keeping tabs on

  5. Seeing the success that Chisaki and Manaka have had with their “second groups” I wonder if there are other H!P girls whose profile could skyrocket if they were traded to a different group?

  6. Chii is such a cognitive type. I think that being the bottom of the hierarchy is suppressing a lot of her strengths, some by her own choice, having to defer to seniority. And in turn, having to catch up on all of the MM discography is making her too tired to think of much else, even outside of MM.

    Once she’s higher up, has more kouhai than senpai, then I think she’ll really bloom.

  7. Chii-chan is so cute. Suddenly joining MM like that must be pretty tough.

    Still, for me the most interesting parts of this for me were the bits about Momochi. She really gave it her all to mold the members of her group into proper idols. I hope Chii-chan will also keep carrying some Momochiism into MM.

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