#izukoneko

Chika: “She runs out of breath often because of how vigorous she moves around, but she’s still just so cute doing it. There’s nothing ugly about her at all.”

Mari: “That’s not true! I hate the way I look when I’m out of breath. I hate it when people mention that (laughs).”

Erika: “Also, she’s amazing at turning on her ‘on’ switch. She’s always dancing her heart out with such a lovely smile even if it’s only during the intro. I just think it’s so amazing. Also, it’s amazing that she’s able to keep everyone enjoying themselves from start to finish even though she’s performing alone on a huge stage.”

Chika: “No matter how close you are to the stage, she’ll still be concentrating hard even if you meet eyes with her. If it were me, I’d be taken aback and pause for a second to notice that someone has their eyes fixed on me.”

Mari, what do you think of Especia’s live performances?

Mari: “I got to see Especia’s live performances a while after we became friends. There were so many times that where all we could do was pass by each other. But I would always visit their dressing room after they had finished their performance.”

In other words, you had no interest in their performances?

Mari: “That’s not true at all!”

Haruka: “She got the name of one of our songs wrong.”

Chika: “We talk to each other on LINE and once she was like ‘They’re playing Especia at the sushi restaurant I’m in! They’re playing Tokimeki Seaside!’”

Mari: “But all that time I had thought it really was called Tokimeki Seaside.”

Chika: “That’s why all of her fans, the ‘Kainushi (lit. owners)’ refer to Kirameki Seaside as Tokimeki Seaside (laughs).”

Mari: “Especia’s sempai in their management agency are BiS, so I had a huge impression that Especia would be like them. But I was so surprised that it was nowhere near that image! They were hailed as being ‘Osaka Obasan’ (Osaka Aunties) so I had a strong image that they would be gaudily yelling out ‘Yay! Yay! Yay!’ (laughs). But in fact they sing in such a calm and chill way. I was so surprised at their strong vocal prowess too! They’re really good. So in that way I felt that there was a huge difference between their spritely attitude in the dressing room to their mature aura on stage.”

Haruka: “That’s right.”

Monari: “But we don’t do that consciously.”

Curumi, could you tell us how you crossed paths with these two parties?

Curumi: “I met Mari for the first time when I had my second ever live performance at CLUB GIRAFFE osaka in June this year. I performed together with Especia for the first time at 2nd LINE in July. Ufufu. I watched both Especia and Izukoneko from the front row.”

Mari: “I met Curumi for the first time at her in-store instant photo event at TOWER RECORDS.”

Curumi: “Oh that’s right! You came as just a fan.”

Mari: “I didn’t tell her that I was an idol though. She just thought that I was her first young female fan. But then the other attendees after me told her that I was an idol. After a while we came across each other on Twitter.”

Curumi: “I wonder if this meeting was made for my sake… I mean, I’m both a Pecista (female Especia fan) and a Kainushi.”

How was your reunion with Mari at Club GIRAFFE?

Curumi: “I was in the dressing room rehearsing while listening to my songs and then Mari came in. Every bit of her reaction was pricelessly cute. Even when she mumbled ‘Oh here’s my seat!’.  She’s so heart wrenchingly cute that it made it difficult for me to concentrate.

Mari: “Uhahahaha! I’m so happy to hear that.”

What about Especia?

Curumi: “Even though they’re called idols, their music just doesn’t fit that category. I don’t know how to explain the impact I felt when I first heard their songs!”

Everyone: “The impact! (laughs)”

Curumi: “I can’t express it well, bit it’s like they’re more like artists.”

Mari: “Yeah! They’re definitely more artists than idols.”

Monari: “Oh man! No way. I’m so happy to hear that.”

Especia, what do you all think of Curumi Chronicle?

Haruka: “How do I put it? She’s a girl who doesn’t put on airs. She seems like the type of girl you would see singing on an open grassy plain. But she has a lot of upbeat songs too. (Begins to mime the choreography for Susume! Susume!)”

Chika: “She’s really cute when she’s singing, but her MC segments…”

Erika: “They’re something! I laughed so much!”

Chika: “I get that she’s probably really nervous, but she just ends up doing the same things over and over again. But even that is pretty endearing! She just makes us want to cheer for her.”

Haruka: “Didn’t she talk about starting to wear contacts? I find it amusing when she talks about ordinary things.”

Her MC segments are pretty amusing.

Curumi: “They’re so plain. I really want to talk about something much more interesting, but my daily life is so boring…”

Haruka: “But even so, it’s very interesting!”

Erika: “She’s so humble and down to earth. When the audience sits down for her MC segments, she always gets flustered and goes, ‘Ah! It’s fine if you don’t sit down. Really.’ (laughs)”

She shows her manners to her audiences who sit down to make her MC segments easier to go through (laughs).

Erika: “She’s just so humble.”

Monari: “But I’m sure she’s gotten used to it already.”

Haruka: “I want her to keep her innocence forever.”

Could I ask you all about what you think about the state of idols in Osaka? Mari, you began your activities as Izukoneko two years ago. I personally think it has changed within that time.

Mari: “It’s completely changed. The state of idols these days are completely different. The way they rile up the atmosphere of the audience has changed. A long time ago, underground idol fans would stay within that niche market. There were many people who fit the stereotypical image of an idol otaku. There was no such thing as gakkyokuha—a category of idols who perform high quality music with potential mainstream appeal. At first, those type of musical idols were not accepted well, given the predominate perspective idol otaku had of just wanting to be pumped up by upbeat songs at an idol event. ‘I can’t get pumped up with this type of music! It’s no fun at all!’ was the regular response to those types of idols. There are a lot of people who listen to songs by idols these days, so I feel it’s easier to be an idol these days.

Chika: “It was like that for us as well.”

Haruka: “The more that the term gakkyokuha has been widespread, the more that people have come to find out about Especia.”

Monari: “But we’re still rejected from the standpoint of idol idols.”

You’re not well-received?

Monari: “Our responses are so much better to what they were like before! Depending on the type of event, the audience would leave the venue whenever it was our turn to go on stage.”

Chika: “Even though we’re not seen as a palette-cleanser, people who leave the venue to rest or to go and buy mercy when it was our turn to perform.”

Haruka: “We weren’t acknowledged as idols.”

Chika: “The audiences would be confused watching us. They would wonder how in the world they were supposed to get pumped up by our performance.”

Chihiro: “But it’s changed now that people know our songs and our personalities.”

That’s exactly why I was so surprised to see that these sorts of idol fans existed when I went to see Curumi and Mari at the event at CLUB GIRAFFE. To be honest, I thought that it would have a more closed image.

Mari: “It’s true that when I first started out, being an idol meant performing anime-song-like songs that were upbeat where you could go wild with your fan chants and mixes. People also left the venue when I went on stage. At this point in time, my fan base has grown substantially so these days there would always be some crowds whenever I perform at an event. I feel blessed. Seriously, up until recently, idol fans would only be fans of idols who looked similar to the main female idol they revere.”

Through that sense of good timing, Curumi and Mari were able to make their debut.

Curumi: “My songs are the only good thing about me…”

Haruka: “That’s not true (laughs).”

Monari: “Even we were worried about that sort of thing. Our terrible singing and dancing is immortalised onto YouTube. Like, the first performances of Knight Rider where we’re only dancing with our hands.”

Chika: “That one’s been up since the very beginning so the view count for that one is pretty high.”

Mari: “I know! I hate that! I just want people to take down my old videos. I want them to stop uploading videos on their own accord (laughs). Somebody, please!”

So it feels like you’re being pulled along by your songs?

Haruka: “I get most frustrated at the fact that sometimes I just can’t live up to the songs. The songs may be good, but we can’t promote Especia well because we’re still so terrible.”

Monari: “I still don’t think we’re able to live up to our songs even until now.”

Curumi: (Nods silently countless times)

I can see that you all agree.

Mari: “I was around the same as Curumi when I made my debut on stage. I was in my second year of high school. Even though her circumstances are different to mine where she was able to traverse to Tokyo a lot earlier in her career than me, I can relate strongly to her. That’s why I felt like it would have been good if our paths had crossed in that way.”

Curumi: “Aww! Thank you!”

Mari, have you ever thought that you couldn’t live up to your songs?

Mari: “I couldn’t sing at all at first because I had no model to guide me.”

But you sing songs that no one else performs.

Mari: “It was a huge struggle at first even though I got used to using my voice from working with a single composer, which is a different case to everyone else here. At first I didn’t know how I could present myself. I tried finding ways I could showcase myself in my own song. Even now I don’t know if I’m doing it the right way though.”

Curumi, you share common ground with Mari as a solo act.

Curumi: “My reflexes aren’t as good as Mari, so I can’t move back and forth vigorously like her.”

Mari: “But that’s just a part of your character, Curumi, so it’s fine. It would be meaningless if you did the exact same things as me.”

Monari: “The more you get used to it, the more you’ll be able to imagine yourself wanting to move in certain ways. I had to make sudden changes as well.”

Is there a point in time where you change?

Akane: “Your will and spirit become a lot stronger when you stand on stage, so you become more aware about the way you present yourself.”

Mari: “Yeah. The way you present yourselves on stage these days is a lot different to the first time I saw you perform. Even the way you stand is different.”

Monari: “In our early days, the members of our group who would sing would be different depending on the song we’d be performing. One day, I was supposed to sing FunkyRock with a member who is not in the group anymore. She wasn’t able to make it to the performance on that day, so I performed it as a duet with Haruka. But because the performers were different than usual, I felt that the audience wasn’t as into the performance. At the part where I went forward on stage so that the audience comes to kecak—wave their arms into our direction as a symbol of reverence—I realised that this was what it was like for the stage to move.

It’s something that comes with time. Curumi, you walk around the stage from left to right when you perform. At first you didn’t even come to front of the stage at first.

Haruka: “You have a great sense of distance (laughs). When you’re on stage these days though, I think you should set yourself some goals to gradually move closer and closer to the front.”

Curumi: “In my head, I’m wondering with all my might about what I should do and if I should walk less loosely.”

Mari: “For me though, it depends on the song. Like for some songs I know that I should move to the front at this bit and at the other bits I should be go to the sides of the stage.”

Curumi: “Yeah! It’s like that!”

That’s because you had a lot of experience before you became Izukoneko.

Mari: “I performed at many different events without regarding what they were exactly. I sang in front of audiences made up of only one person, allowing me to be able cope with performing in different circumstances. I can bear any harsh circumstance that comes my way because of the experiences I’ve had. I was thrown into the deep end with people straight up telling me that I was never the reason they came to watch my performance. I’m fine even if there are people in the audience who watch me with dead eyes and lack of enthusiasm. I get a kick from just thinking about how I could get them to smile or even ways I can lock eyes with them.”

I feel like Mari has a sense of seniority even though she’s only in her teens.

Curumi: “Her aura is so much different from mine.”

Haruka: “I look up to her as a senior even though she’s younger than me. She’s been in the industry longer than I have.”

Monari: “I have immense respect for her. I was watching her performance from the side of the stage at Namba Hatch. Even though there were already heaps of people in the audience, she still glanced and smiled at me. Her composure is amazing.”

Mari: “Ehehe. I want to pump up Osaka together with Especia and Curumi. But, Curumi, you don’t perform much in Osaka though, no?”

Curumi: “I’m not that popular here.”

Monari: “When I look up Especia on Twitter, Curumi Chronicle or Izukoneko are often mentioned along with us. I guess it’s because we’re all linked under the gakkyokuha umbrella.”

Mari: “But I thought that a lot of people come to see you performances…”

Well, well, well (laughs).

Mari: “That’s right! Maybe I should just stop giving advice altogether!”

Curumi: “N-no! That’s not…”

Haruka: “Aw, it’s cute that she’s so serious (laughs).”

Izukoneko and Especia have been promoted well in their home town of Osaka, and they’ve also become quite reputable in Tokyo.

Haruka: “A lot of people from Tokyo promote us on Twitter.”

Mari: “It’s a lot easier for people to go to events when they’re in Tokyo.”

Monari: “I’m positive that Curumi would definitely be able to make it big here too.”

It would be amazing if you could improve the circumstances of the idol scene in Osaka.

Haruka: “It’s a lot easier physically to have our activities in Osaka.”

Chika: “Travelling is… well…”

Monari: “Our faces swell up when we go to Tokyo.”

Mari: “I always sit at the back seat when we’re travelling so it’s a lot more relaxing for me. I have a curtain set up so I could get changed and I also bring a pillow from home.”

Haruka: “Aww… I’m jealous!”

Mari: “But I really yearn to feel the excitement of going to Tokyo with a group like you guys.”

Curumi, you often travel via bullet train.

Curumi: “I’m thankful that I’ve been given ease.”

Mari: “It’s relatively cheap since you’re alone. We have to bring along heaps of merchandise and a group of staff to deal with the audience, so it’s a lot more economical to transport a large amount of people via car.”

Chihiro: “We’ve never had enough room to stretch our legs while travelling between regions.”

Chika: “Mari, it’s not exactly something you would want to yearn for!”

That’s why Especia are in the best condition when they perform in Osaka.

Monari: “Sleeping anywhere is fine, but I loved staying at a capsule hotel in Tokyo.”

A capsule hotel?

Monari: “It was the best for sleeping! It was pure bliss.”

Erika: “We were just so excited to stay there!”

That would bring tears to my eyes…

Erika: “I hated it the first time we stayed there, but I got really excited about it on the second there we were there!”

Chika: “You were able to go to a stone sauna!”

Erika: “Of course!”

You seem like reasonable people.

Haruka: “We would want to still stay at a capsule hotel even if we broke out and became immensely popular!”

Akane: “…I would absolutely hate it!”

Chihiro: “How about your four go stay at a capsule hotel, and the two of us will go and stay at a regular hotel.”

(The girls continue to talk about travelling, accommodation, and food)

By the way, Especia, you wrote and composed the song Our SP!CE together as a group.

Curumi: “Wow! That is amazing!”

Haruka: “It was so hard!”

Monari: “We all brought together different melody ideas which we hummed.”

Chika: “Erika and I hummed melody ideas and Haruka turned them into tangible melodies using instruments.”

Monari: “Akane composed an entire song by herself and brought that to us, but we couldn’t use it all because the song had to be composed together by all of us.”

Haruka: “We took the song apart and put together our melodies with it.”

Monari: “You can hear where a different part was attached to someone else’s melody when you listen to the song. The song changes quite often so it’s very refreshing.”

Akane: “I found it to be an interesting process. We submitted the version we put together as a group. The final arrangement of the song sounds so cute (laughs).”

Haruka: “We made requests about our vision of the song’s arrangement. Like, we specifically asked for it to have an R&B arrangement and for it have a strong beat.”

Curumi: “You girls can really do anything and everything.”

Monari: “We realised you really need to think hard when you’re composing a song.”

Haruka: “That’s why we think our composers are talented geniuses.”

The people who compose for Especia, Curumi Chronicle, and Izukoneko, respectively, are truly talented and amazing. Unfortunately, this is all the time we have for today. Let’s do this again sometime.

Curumi: “By all means.”

Haruka: “In the mean time, let’s get our names across Osaka!”