NEWS news (week of Mar 23)
It was announced on Mar 26th’s episode of “Barairo Dandy” that Koyama will appear every Thursday (instead of every alternate Thursday) from April onwards. ( Source)
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NEWSRING (Mar 25)
It was Koyama’s turn to update
He had to continue the game using “ni”, so he said the first thing that came to mind was “NEWS”. He also threw up a few more words starting with “ni” and wrote a few lines about each, including “niku” (meat), “nya” (meow), “nikibi” (pimple), “nichiyoubi” (sunday) and “nichome” (referring to Shinjuku Nichome, known for being an area with a lot of gay bars).
He finally ended with “nihihihi”, a laughing sound, saying it’s been announced that “Beautiful” will be the theme song for Massu’s drama, asked everyone to watch the first episode to listen to it together and thanked Massu for it.
Masuda Takahisa no Marumaru (Mar 25)
Masuda Takahisa no Drama
Massu wrote about how it was announced that NEWS would sing the theme song for “Rental Nanmo Shinai Hito”. He’s nervous for his first starring role but he’s happy that NEWS gets to sing the song.
He said that it’s a nice song with a message like, “You’re beautiful just the way you are”
KEIICHIRO (Mar 27)
He talked about how it was announced the previous day that he’ll become a weekly regular on “Barairo Dandy” and he’ll do his best so that he can become someone who can comment on any genre of topics.
He also talked about the COVID situation in Tokyo, where people have been advised not to head out for the weekend. He talked about his plans for things to do at home, and said he was relieved it seems no panic buying happened at the supermarkets in his area.
They’re supposed to be having concerts that day, if things had gone according to schedule, and he listed a few of his favourite concert callouts to end the story, along with a selfie of himself wearing a mask.
Just thought to do a compilation of the recent videos that include NEWS on YouTube, from official accounts. While they aren’t subbed, these are some good videos to watch while we’re all indoors. Also nice to help contribute some views :)
NEWS - Music Station PR message before their performance on Feb 28th
NEWS - CDTV PR message for their appearance on Mar 7th’s episode - Part 1
NEWS - CDTV PR message for their appearance on Mar 7th’s episode - Part 2
NEWS - CDTV PR message before their performance on the Mar 16th special
Shige - short interview for “Dekirukoto nara Steed de”
Massu - making + interview for “Pareto no Gosan”
Massu - 15 sec trailer for “Rental Nanmoshinai Hito”. The same trailer can also be seen on Johnny’s YouTube channel
30 sec trailer for episode 1 here.
Massu - the series of videos of him not doing anything much, also for “Rental Nanmoshinai Hito”
Cream soda version
Yakiniku version
Doing nothing version
Banana version
To keep up to date on NEWS’ activities don’t forget to check out the NEWS Schedule at the top of the sidebar!
Sorashige Book (Mar 1)
Listener Letter: Shige read a few letters from listeners who wrote in to say that they have high expectations now that the details of Story have been released.
Shige thanked them and did some PR for the album asking everyone to look forward to it.
♪ Fujii Kaze - Nan nan ♪
Listener Letter: The listener asked Shige to explain what it means when he says he arranged his own solo song this time. They don’t know the difference between writing a song and arranging it.
Shige said that a simple explanation is that writing a song means writing the melody while arrangement is orchestral arrangement. So really anyone can write a song just by picking at their guitar or humming. So for previous songs he would come up with the melody and then afterwards Nakanishi Ryosuke who did the arrangement would add chords and other sounds. This time his writing process was a bit different with writing chords and stuff before the melody and since they ended up using his chords and sounds he was told that since it added a lot to the final version of the song that he can have an arrangement credit. The demo he made was remade for the final version, but they used more of his original material. He was even more involved throughout the whole process this time.
♪ STORY ♪
Kchan NEWS (Mar 4)
The guest this week was Tegoshi
Tegoshi introduced himself as “Funny bone”.
They also talked about how Tegoshi is doing a lot of vocal training with his kohai, for debuted groups they practice an upbeat happy song and a ballad. Koyama talked about how he there’s a shared folder for members and their music producer, and within that there’s a Tegoshi folder and from the kohai songs that have been added to it he can tell which groups Tegoshi must be helping train.He said that there are also non-Johnny’s songs in there that Tegoshi picked because he thinks they're good songs to practice.
Tegoshii said that because of his cheerful personality a lot of kohai tend to rely on him and confide in him during their voice lessons and he tells them to use the time they’re spending worrying on working on singing and dancing and making their fans happy because that time you spend worrying and not doing anything is a waste. So a lot of kohai come to him, he wants to help them make their fans happy. Koyama says that watching Tegoshi do this has made him want to learn the jr’s names and so he’ll buy the Johnny’s Jr Directory and help Tegoshi connect with them since Tegoshi is shy. He talked about the kohai who came up to Tegoshi during countdown again. Tegoshi said that a lot of people came up to him at countdown and Koyama talked about how Tegoshi plays video games with some jrs over voice chat. Tegoshi also complained how a jr asked to stay over at his house, but said that it was cute.
♪ STORY ♪
Listener Letter: The listener usually dyes their own hair but recently they went to a hair salon and brought a picture for reference asking for pink but their hair ended up red. They asked Tegoshi what color they should say they want when they’re at the salon to get his color.
Tegoshi said that for the most part he just leaves it up to the stylist including the color, for pink he showed a picture of the character Lightening from “Final Fantasy” as a reference. Koyama said that the reason the listener’s hair probably ended up red is because he and Tegoshi really bleach their hair. Tegoshi talked about how he does a lot of treatment too to avoid damage from the bleach.
Listener Letter: Listener recently started keeping a diary, they wanted to know how much Tegoshi writes in his diary each day.
Tegoshi said that he writes about 6 or 7 lines, it’s a 3 year diary and he has about it’s 4th volume. This is his 10th year of keeping a diary. Tegoshi said that he writes everything in there and Koyama asked if anyone is allowed to read it and Tegoshi said no. Koyama asked if his mother was allowed and Tegoshi said no it would be embarrassing, he absolutely doesn’t want anyone to see it. It’s interesting to be able to go back and read them.
Listener Letter: Listener talked about how they like their voices and Koyama’s low tones.
Koyama said that recently he really asks Tegoshi a lot of questions and how they talked about how it’s totally different wearing an ear monitor in both ears or just one ear when performing. He said that they practiced the album songs together a number of times.
Koyama said that when he’s singing his part he’ll look over at Tegoshi and Tegoshi will nod at him like it’s ok and Tegoshi commented on how everyone is really stable. Koyama talked about how the songs they sang at CDTV were really challenging.
♪ Stay With Me ♪
Listener Letter: The letter talks to themselves a lot, they want to know if Koyama and Tegoshi talk to themselves a lot.
Koyama said that Tegoshi seems like he would, and Tegoshi said that he does when playing games. Koyama said that he also talks to Emma a lot and Tegoshi got defensive saying that Emma is family, if he’s talking to her he’s not talking to himself. Tegoshi jokingly yelled at Koyama and Koyama asked why he was suddenly taking his pants off saying it’s scary, lots of people pass by here. He asked Tegoshi if he does this at home and Tegoshi said he doesn’t. Tegoshi said that he’s always talking to Emma.
Koyama said that he does talk to Milk too.
Tegomass no Radio (Mar 4)
At the opening, they talked about it being the release day of “STORY” and a little about the album. Moving on to the song to play for the week, they said Tegoshi made a mistake and said the song title for the song that’s supposed to be played this week so everybody knows what song’s coming up. Massu went, “Top Gun” when introducing the song title though, and T: No way!
♪ STAY WITH ME ♪
The listener is into soy milk hot pot these days, and wanted to know what hot pots they like. Massu said he eats mizutaki a lot and how he doesn’t eat spicy ones a lot as they make his back feel uncomfortable. Tegoshi said he likes this Taiwanese style one, where they cook using a stone pot, and stir fry the meat using sesame oil first before adding the stock. Tegoshi also likes Chinese hot pot, so he said he probably likes Taiwanese style hot pots. Sakura said she makes mille feuille nabe, where you layer Chinese cabbage and sliced pork. She said this is really yummy and Massu said he likes it too. Tegoshi didn’t know what they were talking about until they showed him photos and he said he’s eaten it before.
Is there anything they are especially particular about? Tegoshi said for him it’s how his notes are lined in his wallet, and he even organises his coins. (M: It’s like how taxi drivers do it!) He even owns a coin sorting machine at home apparently. For Massu, it’s getting the direction of the pumps of his shampoos etc. facing the same direction (M: I’m not that anal at all!). And also, because he doesn’t like how the bottom of the bottles get slippery at the bottom, he has this silver netted rack that he places all his bottles on. (M: Not anal at all, right?) The other two said that’s totally being anal, and Sakura shared how Massu was wiping his leather shoes very seriously before they started (M: Stop it).
Sakura said for her, while she can leave her things everything at home, she’s really particular with how she arranges her things when she’s outside, like at the hotel etc. Massu asked if they put everything out, like put their clothes on the hangers etc., and Tegoshi said he won’t if it’s just for a couple of nights, but would if it’s longer. Massu repeated the story again of how he’d like to be able to travel overseas someday with just a plastic bag (like how Morita Go [V6] did before). While he travels with the least things when they go on tour, he realises he doesn’t have a lot of things he needs. They said they usually have a set of things they leave with the concert staff to move along with the rest of the concert equipment etc., and Tegoshi would put all he needs there, like skin toner enough for the full tour. Massu said there’s a bunch of soccer merchandise that Tegoshi gets them to move. Tegoshi said a few tours ago he even had a collapsible tiny goal post, and Massu sprayed their shoes beside that before. (M: I was doing work. T: Well I was playing futsal as part of warming up!) They also talked a little of how Tegoshi “tortures” the Jrs with his physical training.
For “One Line Actors” this week, Massu went first, having to say “My eyes are super dry” while he’s trying his best to take notes, but his pen ran out of ink. He made a few frustrated noises but they said he did well. Tegoshi then had to say “Shall we dance?” while pretending he’s using the phone at a public telephone booth but realised there’s a ghost behind when he turned around. He screamed, before doing calmly “Shall we dance?” They complained he did really badly so this round went to Massu.
At the ending, they promoted the “STORY” album and tour. Sakura had to read the address details, in the emotion of how she’d feel if she was told she had to shave her head for a role. She mixed it up, and read it while pretending her hair was being shaved off
Masuda Takahisa no Master Hits (Mar 6)
At the opening, he said it’s the 777th episode, but they weren’t going to do anything special. He then went on to talk a little about “STORY” and “Clover”. He also promoted “Dekiru koto nara Steed de”, saying this was getting released today and said he should have done some research on what “steed” was before beginning this programme.
If Massu prefers blowfish or crabs - he couldn’t choose and said both
♪ STORY ♪
The listener is in the service industry and feels really happy when their customer tells them “I came to see you!”. Is there anything Massu feels happy hearing from the Jrs? He talked a little about how he prefers going to shops with shop staff he knows too. As for the Jrs, he said what left the strongest impression was when Jrs started asking him to take them out for dinner and he was like, “Why? Why me? You sure you’re okay with me?” He also shared how he sometimes doesn’t know how to react when Jrs go up to him after their concerts/performances, telling him they really look up to him. And he’d be like, how do I stand, how do I speak? He said everyone probably has moments when they don’t know how to react after being praised. He wondered what the listener does and hopes they can sell lots of whatever they sell.
What fruit he likes best - he generally likes fruits, and what he feels happiest seeing recently is shine muscat grapes. He also listed some fruits he likes, like strawberries, oranges, apples, pears, bananas, cherries…
The listener enters college from spring and would like to go shopping for new clothes. What does Massu find cute on college girls? He wondered what they usually wear, and are probably all different? He named beige trench coats, and suggested buying a good coat. He also said he’d like to try making a dress, since he’s only gotten to make male costumes so far. He suggested it’d be best to find and buy something they really like
On a listener who’s not sure about what material to choose for their new sofa - to get a cloth based one for comfort, or a leather one so it’s easier to clean? He said he totally understands the dilemma and said both have their pros. It’s fine to just decide on the appearance, isn’t it? And how they feel when they sit on it. He suggested buying what they like
A listener wanted ideas on where to use the keychain they just received from their friend. He likes keychains a lot so he has a lot of them but they’re all just mostly hanging somewhere at home. It’d be nice if they could make something to hang keychains as part of their tour merchandise. And said he’d like a keychain for keychains. He also suggested using the keychain as a necklace or on their bag
♪ Top Gun ♪
For Masterpiece this week, he played “SEVEN”. He talked a little about the meaning of “SEVEN”, how they’ve been using it in the past three concerts, and also how it’s the 7th album since they became four. He also hopes everyone would join in the call and response in the song.
At the ending, he promoted “Pareto no Gosan” and “Rental Nanmoshinai Hito”. He also found out the meaning of “Steed” - a bike model