Jr. Sho
I have been a fan of Arashi for almost 10 years (next year would be my one decade anniversary!!)
But for some reasons I have never really seen the junior footage of Arashi other than the one they show on the current variety shows, because:
a) The video resolutions are bad.
Welcome to the 1990s, the era of VHS and tape. I just do not really have the patience to sit through all these old videos because when they shoot the people from far I couldn't even tell who is who because of the resolutions. I could only see the member if it was a zoom in.
b) Looking for their old videos was hard
c) This is like the most honest reason, it feels weird when I see Arashi but they are not Arashi.
However as the 20th anniversary is coming, I feel like this would be the perfect time to finally learn more about Junior Arashi through my own eyes.
So let's start with the brief story (and everyone probably already knew this):
1. During Jr days Nino, Aiba, and Jun belong to the same peer group and unit. The three of them were good friends, particulary nino and aiba being the soubusen mates. Together with Ikuta Toma they were in a group called MAIN (the initials of their name). These three peers are close with Tackey, the leader of the Golden Era Junior. At this time, Tackey was considered the top aka the elites among the elites.
2. Sho was on different peer-group. He was close with Tsubasa, Kohara Yuki, and older Juniors. According to Kazama, Sho only played with people around his age he rarely had any contact with younger Juniors.
3. Leader aka Ohno Satoshi was out of the picture as he had to stay in Kyoto for butai/theater. Ohno never appeared on the regular Juniors show called "8 ji da J" and during the concert (Sugao) he only appeared for a brief second. As a result, Ohno was relatively unknown compared to other members during their debut.
But being a junior was not always a happy time. Imagine if you are still in your early 10s and you have to compete with 60-ish other kids to become more popular hence gaining higher chance to debut, of course conflicts may start. So let's start with the rumours, again this is all rumors it MIGHT ended up being true or false. No one will ever found out, really.
1. Sho was not on really good terms with Tackey. At their early days, Tackey and Tsubasa were really close but their friendship started to apart. At this time, Tsubasa was getting close with Sakurai Sho whereas Tackey had new friends: Nino, Aiba, and Jun. (He was really close with Aiba as they often play at each other's house). If I had to say, I wouldn't say Sho and Tackey were really fighting but rather they both knew they had totally different perspectives hence there was no way they could be good friends.
Young Sho
Sho only treated Johnnys as his extra curricular activities. He thought he would quit after graduating from High School, hence during their 8ji da J days when other juniors were fussing about the show he would rather be in the corner doing other activities. At this time Sho was also really obsessed with Yankee Fashion (I don't even know why) making him look like a thug. Young Sho was desperate to be unique, he tried many things like having his belly button pierced, using colored contacts, and so on.
I personally think young sho had the most rebellious stage in Arashi. He was hard to approach, did not want to make contact with many people, and often fought with his parents. I love character development like this.
Now let's start with the observation. The first thing I am going to dig in is Sugao. During the golden era of Juniors, they were given the opportunity to held three concerts (Arashi was only in first and second). i am going to start with the second sugao. Fyi, around this time some popular Juniors were fired because of scandals. Ever since that the management had been pushing other trainees and one of them is Sakurai Sho. He finally began to have more exposures and it was clearly shown in the second Sugao.
Aiba, Jun, Tackey, Nino and Sho in Las Vegas
The dvd started with the videos of Aiba, Jun, Tackey, Nino and Sho having a great time in Las Vegas. Aiba, Jun, and Nino were already on the same group and they had always sat in the front row of 8 Ji da J. Tackey is the MC along with Hiromi so he seated not just in the front row but also in the center. Whereas Sho was often put in the third or fourth row. But this time Sho went to Las Vegas with them. From my observation, Sho was particulary close with Nino and Jun. In fact he often made fun of Jun (my sakumoto heart). He had few moments with Tackey but surprisingly none with Aiba. Then again Sho often mentioned that he and aiba never really talked during their junior days.
Sharing a drink with Nino, Hanging with J
Aiba was mostly with Tackey
Sho getting embarassed after he tried to open J's pants (LMAO THE GOLDEN MOMENT OF SAKUMOTO)
Look at the HANDS are they even on a DATE?
So you can probably tell Sho had a very good time with J. But the only time he was talking to Aiba was only when he recorded the five of them in front of a bus station and he wanted to prank Matsujun by pretending to film everyone except J. When Aiba came up to the camera Sho was only saying casual things like "Aiba chan Yeaaay". I mean of course we did not see their activities 24/7 and it was only a short footage but we could clearly conclude that Sho was not close with Aiba (Imagine them in 15 years going on a date to Chiba AKA the best moment of my Sakuraiba OTP AKA THAT EPISODE OF HNA).
But for some reasons I have never really seen the junior footage of Arashi other than the one they show on the current variety shows, because:
a) The video resolutions are bad.
Welcome to the 1990s, the era of VHS and tape. I just do not really have the patience to sit through all these old videos because when they shoot the people from far I couldn't even tell who is who because of the resolutions. I could only see the member if it was a zoom in.
b) Looking for their old videos was hard
c) This is like the most honest reason, it feels weird when I see Arashi but they are not Arashi.
However as the 20th anniversary is coming, I feel like this would be the perfect time to finally learn more about Junior Arashi through my own eyes.
So let's start with the brief story (and everyone probably already knew this):
1. During Jr days Nino, Aiba, and Jun belong to the same peer group and unit. The three of them were good friends, particulary nino and aiba being the soubusen mates. Together with Ikuta Toma they were in a group called MAIN (the initials of their name). These three peers are close with Tackey, the leader of the Golden Era Junior. At this time, Tackey was considered the top aka the elites among the elites.
2. Sho was on different peer-group. He was close with Tsubasa, Kohara Yuki, and older Juniors. According to Kazama, Sho only played with people around his age he rarely had any contact with younger Juniors.
3. Leader aka Ohno Satoshi was out of the picture as he had to stay in Kyoto for butai/theater. Ohno never appeared on the regular Juniors show called "8 ji da J" and during the concert (Sugao) he only appeared for a brief second. As a result, Ohno was relatively unknown compared to other members during their debut.
But being a junior was not always a happy time. Imagine if you are still in your early 10s and you have to compete with 60-ish other kids to become more popular hence gaining higher chance to debut, of course conflicts may start. So let's start with the rumours, again this is all rumors it MIGHT ended up being true or false. No one will ever found out, really.
1. Sho was not on really good terms with Tackey. At their early days, Tackey and Tsubasa were really close but their friendship started to apart. At this time, Tsubasa was getting close with Sakurai Sho whereas Tackey had new friends: Nino, Aiba, and Jun. (He was really close with Aiba as they often play at each other's house). If I had to say, I wouldn't say Sho and Tackey were really fighting but rather they both knew they had totally different perspectives hence there was no way they could be good friends.
Young Sho
Sho only treated Johnnys as his extra curricular activities. He thought he would quit after graduating from High School, hence during their 8ji da J days when other juniors were fussing about the show he would rather be in the corner doing other activities. At this time Sho was also really obsessed with Yankee Fashion (I don't even know why) making him look like a thug. Young Sho was desperate to be unique, he tried many things like having his belly button pierced, using colored contacts, and so on.
I personally think young sho had the most rebellious stage in Arashi. He was hard to approach, did not want to make contact with many people, and often fought with his parents. I love character development like this.
Now let's start with the observation. The first thing I am going to dig in is Sugao. During the golden era of Juniors, they were given the opportunity to held three concerts (Arashi was only in first and second). i am going to start with the second sugao. Fyi, around this time some popular Juniors were fired because of scandals. Ever since that the management had been pushing other trainees and one of them is Sakurai Sho. He finally began to have more exposures and it was clearly shown in the second Sugao.
Aiba, Jun, Tackey, Nino and Sho in Las Vegas
The dvd started with the videos of Aiba, Jun, Tackey, Nino and Sho having a great time in Las Vegas. Aiba, Jun, and Nino were already on the same group and they had always sat in the front row of 8 Ji da J. Tackey is the MC along with Hiromi so he seated not just in the front row but also in the center. Whereas Sho was often put in the third or fourth row. But this time Sho went to Las Vegas with them. From my observation, Sho was particulary close with Nino and Jun. In fact he often made fun of Jun (my sakumoto heart). He had few moments with Tackey but surprisingly none with Aiba. Then again Sho often mentioned that he and aiba never really talked during their junior days.
Sharing a drink with Nino, Hanging with J
Aiba was mostly with Tackey
Sho getting embarassed after he tried to open J's pants (LMAO THE GOLDEN MOMENT OF SAKUMOTO)
Look at the HANDS are they even on a DATE?
So you can probably tell Sho had a very good time with J. But the only time he was talking to Aiba was only when he recorded the five of them in front of a bus station and he wanted to prank Matsujun by pretending to film everyone except J. When Aiba came up to the camera Sho was only saying casual things like "Aiba chan Yeaaay". I mean of course we did not see their activities 24/7 and it was only a short footage but we could clearly conclude that Sho was not close with Aiba (Imagine them in 15 years going on a date to Chiba AKA the best moment of my Sakuraiba OTP AKA THAT EPISODE OF HNA).