More 2018.04 - Nino's 'It'
Nino on 'UB', the Aimiya unit song in the 'untitled' album.
There's something almost plaintive about this one.
- - - - -
It {一途}
The hectic days have continued into the New Year holidays. The earnest thoughts he’s been hiding are about how the days will change and ripen. Where does his path lead?
Chapter 112
Where love is
This interview took place at the end of last year, just as the concert tour entered its final stages. They’re always trying new things in Arashi concerts, and this time it’s especially novel. Amongst all things, Ninomiya Kazunari and Aiba Masaki’s unit song, ‘UB’, incorporates a novel dance performance with exquisite combination play. Brimming with warmth and wit, it’s as if you can see the duo’s intentions, personalities and relationship more clearly from it. When asked, “Was the choreography for that song Nino’s idea?” he seems a little more pleased than usual to open up about it.
“It wasn’t particularly my idea. I just supported the idea of this dance for ‘UB’ out of the various ones that the staff had proposed. It was by a pair of German dancers and it was a type of dance I’d never seen before, so I figured the audience were bound to enjoy it. So we asked those dancers to help us choreograph it and came up with the direction for everything apart from the dance.”
It’s a performance that surprises, delights and moves viewers. It was made into reality thanks to his natural foresight plus the fact that he is, as he says, ‘Arashi’s greatest fan’.
“I don’t know about that foresight. I mean, at first that dance was actually designed to make people laugh. Like, I thought that mysterious dance being performed by the two of us would seem so comical that it’d make people laugh. But as we practised it, the person who directed the choreography was like, “When the two of you do it, it’s somehow more moving than funny”. This was from a choreographer that knew Aiba and I from way back, so maybe that’s why they felt that way. So it stopped being something we tried to do for laughs (laughs).”
Certainly, that dance is more moving than comical.
“Everyone says that. We honestly never intended for it to be moving, but we failed to convey our intent with that (laughs).”
What’s the difference between a musician and an idol? I’ve been thinking about the point of their activities
Though he’s smiling, he looks perplexed. When asked if he’s dissatisfied with stirring such emotions in the audience, he says, “Ultimately, it’s all good as long as it brings them joy, but...” and continues.
“It also happens on variety shows and so on, but it’s in my nature to wonder how can you take a funny song, do funny things to it and have it turn out not funny? (laughs) Like, with live performances of ‘UB’, with our relationship, how would it turn out if we did something really moving to it? Since we’ve been doing this for so long, we can generally tell what to do to make fans happy. For example, there are a lot of people who want to see five guys messing around, close as ever, never changing. But without stopping ourselves or the times, we will gradually change and evolve. Naturally, beyond that, we want to offer more interesting and novel things; there’s always that sense of wanting everyone to see that.”
'Arashi wants to be a presence that offers novel, quality entertainment' is probably something he wholeheartedly thinks.
“I’ve wondered if what we’ve been doing for nearly 20 years now has any point if there were no interest in the entertainment we’re providing, beyond the closeness of the five of us and our private lives. If we were musicians, the audience may be attracted by our music or way of life, but with idols, it’s hard. I’m grateful that people think, “they’re cute, they’re good people, that’s why I like them!” But it’s difficult to see the reality, isn’t it? Depending on the situation, there are cases where people aren’t really legitimately assessing the entertainment itself.”
Such compelling love for entertainment is equalled by his everlasting love for his supporters. He’s aware that wanting to be loved for his works rather than his existence is an enviable dilemma. It might be a dilemma precisely due to the fact Arashi have a long and overwhelmingly strong favourable impression, perhaps?
“Hmm. But what IS a favourable impression, anyway? Sure, Arashi are good people by nature (laughs). They probably have barely any haters from society or the people around them (laughs). But if they have a strong favourable impression, then if they were to appear on a variety show, the people around them would view them that way. In other words, people don’t look past the product of their image. So, frankly, I’ve never been concerned with favourable impressions and I’ve never thought they held much meaning. Naturally, it comes down to creating interesting things with the people around us, making things that we genuinely think are good that the time, sharing that with everyone and wanting to bring joy. It’s really just as simple as that.”
- - - - -
Kazunari Ninomiya
Born 17th June 1983 in Tokyo. Arashi’s first single of 2018, ‘Find the Answer’ is currently on sale with rave reviews. The choreographer for ‘UB’ is a popular German dance unit. “Only one of them came to Japan to teach us the choreography, but when they saw how fast we learnt the dance, they were so surprised that they excitedly phoned their dance partner straight away (laughs).”
|| Words / Yoshi Rei || Photography / Emori Yasuyuki ||
|| Hair & Makeup / Hattori Yukio || Stylist / Iga Daisuke ||
- - - - -
f o o t n o t e s
ETA: The 'German dance unit' is LA-based RubberLegz & Montreal-based James Gregg (according to this source).
You can see examples of their dances here: [1] || [2]
There's something almost plaintive about this one.
- - - - -
It {一途}
The hectic days have continued into the New Year holidays. The earnest thoughts he’s been hiding are about how the days will change and ripen. Where does his path lead?
Chapter 112
Where love is
This interview took place at the end of last year, just as the concert tour entered its final stages. They’re always trying new things in Arashi concerts, and this time it’s especially novel. Amongst all things, Ninomiya Kazunari and Aiba Masaki’s unit song, ‘UB’, incorporates a novel dance performance with exquisite combination play. Brimming with warmth and wit, it’s as if you can see the duo’s intentions, personalities and relationship more clearly from it. When asked, “Was the choreography for that song Nino’s idea?” he seems a little more pleased than usual to open up about it.
“It wasn’t particularly my idea. I just supported the idea of this dance for ‘UB’ out of the various ones that the staff had proposed. It was by a pair of German dancers and it was a type of dance I’d never seen before, so I figured the audience were bound to enjoy it. So we asked those dancers to help us choreograph it and came up with the direction for everything apart from the dance.”
It’s a performance that surprises, delights and moves viewers. It was made into reality thanks to his natural foresight plus the fact that he is, as he says, ‘Arashi’s greatest fan’.
“I don’t know about that foresight. I mean, at first that dance was actually designed to make people laugh. Like, I thought that mysterious dance being performed by the two of us would seem so comical that it’d make people laugh. But as we practised it, the person who directed the choreography was like, “When the two of you do it, it’s somehow more moving than funny”. This was from a choreographer that knew Aiba and I from way back, so maybe that’s why they felt that way. So it stopped being something we tried to do for laughs (laughs).”
Certainly, that dance is more moving than comical.
“Everyone says that. We honestly never intended for it to be moving, but we failed to convey our intent with that (laughs).”
What’s the difference between a musician and an idol? I’ve been thinking about the point of their activities
Though he’s smiling, he looks perplexed. When asked if he’s dissatisfied with stirring such emotions in the audience, he says, “Ultimately, it’s all good as long as it brings them joy, but...” and continues.
“It also happens on variety shows and so on, but it’s in my nature to wonder how can you take a funny song, do funny things to it and have it turn out not funny? (laughs) Like, with live performances of ‘UB’, with our relationship, how would it turn out if we did something really moving to it? Since we’ve been doing this for so long, we can generally tell what to do to make fans happy. For example, there are a lot of people who want to see five guys messing around, close as ever, never changing. But without stopping ourselves or the times, we will gradually change and evolve. Naturally, beyond that, we want to offer more interesting and novel things; there’s always that sense of wanting everyone to see that.”
'Arashi wants to be a presence that offers novel, quality entertainment' is probably something he wholeheartedly thinks.
“I’ve wondered if what we’ve been doing for nearly 20 years now has any point if there were no interest in the entertainment we’re providing, beyond the closeness of the five of us and our private lives. If we were musicians, the audience may be attracted by our music or way of life, but with idols, it’s hard. I’m grateful that people think, “they’re cute, they’re good people, that’s why I like them!” But it’s difficult to see the reality, isn’t it? Depending on the situation, there are cases where people aren’t really legitimately assessing the entertainment itself.”
Such compelling love for entertainment is equalled by his everlasting love for his supporters. He’s aware that wanting to be loved for his works rather than his existence is an enviable dilemma. It might be a dilemma precisely due to the fact Arashi have a long and overwhelmingly strong favourable impression, perhaps?
“Hmm. But what IS a favourable impression, anyway? Sure, Arashi are good people by nature (laughs). They probably have barely any haters from society or the people around them (laughs). But if they have a strong favourable impression, then if they were to appear on a variety show, the people around them would view them that way. In other words, people don’t look past the product of their image. So, frankly, I’ve never been concerned with favourable impressions and I’ve never thought they held much meaning. Naturally, it comes down to creating interesting things with the people around us, making things that we genuinely think are good that the time, sharing that with everyone and wanting to bring joy. It’s really just as simple as that.”
- - - - -
Kazunari Ninomiya
Born 17th June 1983 in Tokyo. Arashi’s first single of 2018, ‘Find the Answer’ is currently on sale with rave reviews. The choreographer for ‘UB’ is a popular German dance unit. “Only one of them came to Japan to teach us the choreography, but when they saw how fast we learnt the dance, they were so surprised that they excitedly phoned their dance partner straight away (laughs).”
|| Words / Yoshi Rei || Photography / Emori Yasuyuki ||
|| Hair & Makeup / Hattori Yukio || Stylist / Iga Daisuke ||
- - - - -
f o o t n o t e s
ETA: The 'German dance unit' is LA-based RubberLegz & Montreal-based James Gregg (according to this source).
You can see examples of their dances here: [1] || [2]