Mocha21

in my latest post, which is nearly 2 years ago, I promised to make a Rinanan drawing then suddenly real life threw a curveball and I pretty much forgot about it. Then all of sudden it was announced that she is passed away, I wasn’t ready for this, girl is too young, 18 is too young. When I remembered, all that she wanted was better progress, positive growth for her future, and we can’t forget about the 170cm either.

The People Behind Momoclo Infographic (hi-res: http://imgur.com/xogMBFX)

A slow weekend got me to make this, okay, this is more like a poster than infographic but whatever ∠( ᐛ 」∠)＿ . When we talk about who is the producer of Momoclo, it’s kinda confusing. Manager Kawakami never called himself “producer” and his role differs greatly from sole idol producer like Tsunku or Akimoto.

Well I just realized in the last post I wrote “Rijicho” and “Chairman”. Actually both term refer to the same person, Ryoji Fujishita the managing director of Section 3. I personally prefer the terms like Kocho or Rijicho but I decided to drop the jargon for convenience sake. FYI Fujishita said in his twitter that the term indeed originally meant the “chairman” as in private school board chairman, the term evolves as he came up through the ranks to become a corporate executive, “chairman” of Stardust.

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Ebichu History Interview

Manager (Headmaster) Yuichi Fujii and A&R Hiroshi Ishizaki

Text / Interview: Tsuchiya Keisuke

…

— so, Substitute Teacher Ishizaki-san came here to fix things up?

Ishizaki: I joined this team in April 2011. I had worked for Momoiro Clover before. I was surprised when I watched Ebichu’s lesson for the first time, there were only two people: Fujii-san and the dance teacher. So all of this time they were doing that every Saturday afternoon, that’s some kind of crazy. It really felt like a school play indeed, things like “let’s aim for the top” were’t there at all, but it’s kinda interesting somehow.

— From there “The Tissue ~Tomaranai Seishun~” also went widespread.

Headmaster: Well this song is already ridiculous, so let’s make such a PV, and then suddenly the Youtube viewer count went up to 10,000.  It might be our second breakthrough after “Ebizorii”. Among other idols groups who hadn’t debuted yet at the time, we actually garnered sheer audience size in our live concerts.

Ishizaki: There were about 300 people.

— The performance in Nakano Sun Plaza concert of Momoiro Clover is a big one, isn’t it?

Headmaster: At first I thought it wasn’t a big performance, there were only about 2000 audiences after all. Standing on the stage of Nakano Sun Plaza is a big one for them though. They were never singing in front of 2000 audiences before, even Mirei was crying back then. Then the concert was over, I noticed that there were lots of people indeed (laugh)

— (laugh) and then in July last year, with full vampire make-up they released “Oh My Ghost! ~Watashi ga Akuryou ni Natte mo~“. They started to go full Ebichu.

Headmaster: They even introduced themselves as “Vampire Sisters” in TIF.(lol) They actually hated that to an extent. It’s something they were afraid to being laughed at. But I’d say the “Oh My Ghost!” PV is really nice, it’s unexpectedly went great for them too. The budgeting was also going no problem. I think for both the song and the PV went well, it’s a coincidence.

So this is the nicest coincidence you’ve ever had.

Headmaster: The unit itself is a result of coincidence, so I will be aware for next coincidences. (laugh)

— After that, they became a very “bumpy” group altogether. What do you think when you decided to turn the “bumpy” level up to eleven? Headmaster: Generally speaking, this is not the group where the girls with good singing and dancing ability gathered. I myself had been irritated to the max about it at first (laugh). Then I decided to bring up what may be their most interesting part. It’s not about compensating for they are not or what each kid lack for, it s to push everyone in the group. It was a pretty hard time for them (laugh)

— Since last December when the leader Reina Miyazaki moved schools, were the feelings of those 9 members become stronger? Headmaster: No, because back when they were a 10-member group, Reina was treasured by all. Even today, the feeling is still there. We don’t have a straight man anymore in the MC when we need to straighten up the talk. Well that can’t be helped, we don’t plan to add new members as well. I think this is the best for us.

— Earlier in this year, Ebichu went into major scene, do the members feel any different? Headmaster: Of course. We get more staff, we have a hairdresser who we’re longing for to make the photoshoot better, and also cuter costume. It’s great.

Ishizaki: Well since we’ve joined Defstar-san, in the February live concert everyone was very glad to have nine microphones.

A translation from Marquee magazine vol.94 published in 2012, the magazine has a whopping 30 pages of nice pics and lengthy interview from members, staffs and of course hyadain. It's like a bigger version of quick japan lol, it's a must grab for Ebichu fans, they have Babymetal in the front cover and main content too, so it's a double fun. Anyway here's the translation.

tl;dr: Hoshina and Hirota are the boss.

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Ebichu History Interview

Manager (Headmaster) Yuichi Fujii and A&R Hiroshi Ishizaki

Text / Interview: Tsuchiya Keisuke

Shiritsu Ebisu Chugaku continues to advance with their powerful, heated yet fun performances. Their key figure is Mr. Yuichi Fujii, a manager from Stardust Promotion Entertainment Section 3 who has been known by the moniker “Headmaster”. He was appointed to become the headmaster in February 2010 and has been involved in all of their activities since then. The girls have made their way here thanks to this competent manager. There’s also Hiroshi Ishizaki, known as “Substitute Teacher”, from Stardust Music Publishing A&R. This is the story of how Ebichu got here, told from management’s viewpoint.

-- So you weren’t their headmaster when Ebichu was formed in August 2009?

Headmaster: That’s right. I’m the second generation headmaster. The first headmaster is a woman manager named Eri Sato. I was in another agency before went to the marketing in Stardust Section 3 and I was sent out in busy days or weekends. Around that time, before the conception of Momoiro Clover, the children of 3Bjr (department for juniors, school students in Stardust Entertainment Section 3) were doing street performances in Yoyogi Park. I just entered this office when Kawakami manager said to me while preparing the tarpaulin, “You will sleep here” (laugh)

-- How did you become headmaster then?

Headmaster: First generation headmaster was called into Osaka for another job for one year and then I received a call from the Chairman, “Fujii, you will do it”. It’s around February 2010 I think.

-- And then Hirota-san was transferred (joined) in April.

Headmaster: Yep around that time. I’m in the same year as aiai (laugh)

-- I heard Ebichu’s direction has began to change since Hirota-san joined.

Headmaster: Ebichu was originally started as a talent lesson program. Initial members like Mizuki, Rika Mayama, Natsu Anno, Ayaka Yasumoto and Narumi Uno didn’t think to become idols back then. Aika then entered and I thought how unexpected talent she has. So when this gem has joined, I wonder if Aika Hirota can change the shape of Stardust. I got the right timing, Momoiro Clover was also climbing up their way, I would do the same to Ebichu…. oh, nope, that wasn't their time yet (laugh). So we started from one live concert in two or three months, we went to once or twice performance every two weeks, or about one performance a month.

-- How did you come with “King of School play” and “Subculture Idol” concepts that time?

Headmaster: Chairman wasn’t really care about it in the first place. After Hirota joined, I and Chairman began to messing around and things has become fun. Those stupid things are interesting. When I mentioned about subculture, Rijicho instantly suggested “subdol” (laugh). Ebichu was originally aimed to be a neat group like Sakura Gakuin-san and then four new members were coming one by one. I didn’t know there was a “first rule” in Ebichu. They were only allowed to wear black-colored hair rubber band until one day Mirei (Hoshina) came up with pink rubber band, the initial members said to me “Mirei’s rubber band…” and I was like “Eh, there is such rule? I think that’s alright?” (laugh)

-- So that’s how the rule has changed (laugh)

Headmaster: Yes. I wasn’t even aware the school concept in the first place (laugh). I thought it’s a junior high because of the uniform costume (laugh). After all there was no clear rule, Chairman is also not the kind of person who care about that. About King of School Play, Chairman said to me that it is borrowed from Michael Jackson.

-- So it’s from King of Pop.

Headmaster: Yeah something like that (laugh), the idea was almost came up fast (laugh).

-- What do you think the turning point in Ebichu?

Headmaster: Chairman asked Maeyamada to work on the song “Ebizori Diamond!!”. It was debuted in TOKYO IDOL FES in August 2010. There were idols everywhere watching us, “Ebizori Diamond!!” got great positive feedback. I wanted to work on it properly then. We were releasing CD every about four months. We were steadily making song, and continuing songs like a story.

-- November in the same year, the original center Narumi Uno moved schools (left) and then Hinata Kashiwagi was transferred (joined). That was a big change in the group.

Headmaster: Yeah. Uno quit, Hinata joined. Even though she is the youngest, she topped the others in the recording of “Chime! / Doshaburi Regret”. But back in the days, because of company circumstances, we only had six microphones in live concerts and it would be difficult if everyone got solo parts. The new girl Kashiwagi suddenly got two solo parts and reducing the senior’s part in "Doshaburi", that was a bad thing.

-- I see. That’s totally unplanned (lol)

Headmaster: Unplanned indeed, it's before Zaki-san (Ishizaki) came along with us and the plan about making an annual schedule...