The Dark Age of Idols —
A Time of Individual Refinement…
And Their Destination of Arrival

— It feels like a lot of the Platinum Era songs were tragic love stories. Was that your image of the members at the time?

Tsunku♂: No. That was just as per the office’s orders to me.

— “SEXY BOY ~Soyokaze ni Yorisotte~” was the first song in a while where you actually changed the choreography as you had done previously with “LOVE Machine.” The whole “ai~n” thing… (laughs)

Tsunku♂: It didn’t look quite like that when I first came up with it, but when the members themselves did it, that’s what it became. (laughs) Well, it’s still good as it is.

— The members all looked to be having so much fun in that music video, too. It feels like a lot of the songs from that era were dominated by Fujimoto’s voice.

Tsunku♂: That could be. Fujimoto’s voice was the closest to all the idols from the 70’s and the 80’s, or the good era of J-pop kayou kyoku. She was a strange girl in that when we were in recording, once every ten takes she’d give us a miracle. “Ooh! Great job on that verse! Could we get another take like that one, please?” And then when she’d sing it again, we’d be getting something completely different instead. (laughs) “Huh? What’s wrong?” But the one miraculous take she’d give us would always be something we could use. She was actually very bad with rhythm, and yet, sometimes she’d be spot-on. It really was strange recording with her.

— Fujimoto had the image of being a flawless singer though.

Tsunku♂: That’s the miracle of recording technology for you. (laughs) Still, Fujimoto really did have a great voice, and moreover her singing was expressive. You can really hear it. And that’s great. In contrast, Matsuura had a flawless sense of rhythm, but her singing could at times sound dispassionate. But she, too, was a great talent and she was pleasant to listen to. I used to think how nice it’d be if I could find someone who was right in the middle of those two in terms of their abilities. But then it was also because they were so contrasting that they got along so well, and it could be why the unit they did together was so fun.

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Into the Golden Era!
The Aesthetics of a Producer

Tsunku♂: “Morning Coffee” was a success based purely on cuteness. Up to “Daite HOLD ON ME,” Morning Musume had been a successful idol group among males as well as the female viewers of ASAYAN. There were some difficult times after that, but thanks to “LOVE Machine” I could now see what it was that I needed to do. Office ladies, grandpas, grandmas, children — everyone liked Morning Musume. They had become successful. FM radio, cable radio, karaoke — every day you could hear the support for the group. It made me happy.

Now then, here’s where it gets interesting…

— The momentum immediately spurred you into creating a new unit: Pucchimoni.

Tsunku♂: People calling Abe the “mother ship of Morning Musume” now felt only like a fleeting moment in memory. Goto had arrived. The group was gaining in popularity fast with Goto in the center of it all. By the time her summer vacation ended, Goto had already changed her hair — she was back to being a normal, black-haired junior high schooler. I decided to create a new unit with Goto, the focus of everyone’s attention; Ichii, who was as dazzling as always; and Yasuda, who was plain but happy-go-lucky.

When the main group is doing well it suddenly starts to feel like it might be dangerous to try out certain things with it, and so my thinking was that I could get away with trying those things if it was a sub-unit instead. If Morning Musume was curry rice, then Pucchimoni was like the pickled onion on the side. In my mind, the way I saw it at the time was similar to Mazinger Z and its small pilders — they’re usually together, but the pilders can also operate by themselves. (Though don’t ask me what Mazinger Z gets up to during that time. (laughs)) But it was because of “LOVE Machine” coming first that “Chokotto LOVE” could materialize — both the music and the music video.

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 The Father of Morning Musume
Tsunku looks back on the past 20 years

Morning Musume, congratulations on your 20th anniversary.

I never imagined that it would go on for this long. I do believe it wouldn’t have been possible without all 41 members of Morning Musume, both current as well as those who graduated, leaving the nest in order to find their own paths in life.

The god of music must have been watching over us all.

The reason the group has gone on to exist for 20 years is thanks to you, the members, for having been there to express my music. I look forward to seeing how many more years there are to come. Let us both continue facing the music with sincerity in our hearts.

2018
Tsunku♂

— Congratulations on the 20th anniversary.

Tsunku♂: Thank you. It really is an achievement to have come this far. The group never had to experience any truly painful times, nor was there ever a time when someone was ordering them to stop despite them wanting to continue. So while it is partly that they’ve just been blessed with good luck, I am nevertheless grateful.

The Birth of Morning Musume

— I’d like to start at the very beginnings of the group. You yourself are an artist, appearing first as a member of Sharan Q, making you someone who would go out there on stage yourself. Did you always feel strongly about wanting to produce others?

Tsunku♂: I remember seeing Komuro Tetsuya back then, leading the way by being busy not only with his own musical activities but also as a producer. That was something I admired. There was something that just sounded appealing to me about the word “producer” at the time. But I had already established myself as a mere member of a band — I wasn’t the type who could stand in front of an orchestra waving the conductor’s baton. I hadn’t received any sort of a proper musician’s education at a young age. So the truth is that I was worried. “How should someone like me react when they’re suddenly called a “producer” or a “teacher”?” I didn’t know if I was actually up to it… but something told me that if only I just tried, I would be able to pull it off. Though I was basing this on nothing, of course.

— So that was what was running through your mind when you first met those girls.

Tsunku♂: Yes. By sheer coincidence, there were these five girls there who just happened to know even less about music than we did — but they all really loved to sing.

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The latest interview based on a questionnaire
submitted to Tsunku♂ in March 2018!
Questions by:
Asai Ryo, Tsurugi Mikito, Naka G,
Yuzuki Asako, Yasuda Kenichi & Yoshida Go

— Please tell us: in all honesty, how do you feel now about having left your position as the overall producer of Hello! Project?

Tsunku♂: Right. Well, I worry about the members in many ways. For example, I worry about them reaching their limit as singers, mentally speaking… That kind of thing. For better or worse, my producing method was… I would talk to them as someone who had also stood on the live stage. I’d talk to them about what I’d learned from having performed both at the tiny clubs as well as places like the Budokan or the Domes. I’d talk to them about both my failures as well as my successes. Sometimes I could be a bit strict with them when explaining their responsibilities as professionals, whereas other times I would deal with the problem simply by joking about it. I realize that it’s a different time and there are no right or wrong answers…

But yes, I would talk to them about those kinds of thing. I do at times worry if they’re having fun or not. I’m always praying for the happiness of my beloved disciples.

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