Masumoto Kira solo interview in Bessatsu Kadokawa Keyakizaka46 / Sakurazaka46 1013/1209
From the 2nd gen onward, there have been quite a few members who originally liked Keyakizaka46 as a fan, and Masumoto Kira of the new 2nd gen is one of those who has liked Keyakizaka46 from before she joined the group. What kind of time was it for her, from the renaming decision, the announcement, to the last live performance? From her words, you can feel the frustration of being part of the new 2nd generation who had only been in the group for a few months at the time of the last live, and yet you can feel the strength of her will to look forward towards the future.
After I was assigned to Keyakizaka as a new 2nd generation member, our activities were restricted due to the COVID pandemic. It was just around the time when we had almost no activities that we heard about the renaming, and at first I couldn't understand it well, or rather, there was a lot of confusion. However, it seemed that the seniors took the renaming well, and were working hard to put their feelings behind them and move towards the future, so I gradually came to realize that I couldn’t continue to feel confused.
I had only just entered the group when I heard about the renaming, but because I really like Keyakizaka I felt sad about it. However, I was able to change my feelings in my own way, or rather I started to feel that if Keyakizaka46 is going to end, then I should do my best to properly follow things through. I thought I shouldn't keep being sad all the time.
What made her perceive that “the seniors took the renaming well, and were working hard to put their feelings behind them and move towards the future”? She had a unique perspective because she had been watching her seniors as a junior.
First of all, from reading the seniors’ blogs, I felt that they were ready to accept the name change, switch gears, and move on. And the biggest reason I thought "the seniors are taking the name change calmly" was the online live performance where we announced the renaming ("KEYAKIZAKA46 Live Online, but with YOU" held on July 16th). During the live concert, while the name change had not been announced to the audience yet, the members knew about it already. That’s why the way they put their feelings into it was amazing. Especially in “Garasu wo Ware!” where they truly left it all out there, recklessly, shouting loudly as they got pumped up, and then the time came to announce the name change.
When I watched the video of that moment afterwards, it stood out to me how the seniors already had a determined look in their eyes towards the renaming. When the new 2nd gens were sometimes shown on the screen, there were some of us who still had a look of anxiousness in our eyes, but it felt like the seniors were seriously looking towards the future. That’s how I felt that the seniors took the renaming well, and are trying to change their feelings to work hard towards the future.
Among the determined gazes of the seniors, there was one member who had a particularly memorable look in her eyes.
Watanabe Risa-san's eyes were truly amazing. It was like she was staring into the distance that day, or looking ahead, like she was focused on a single point without hesitation. Seeing her eyes, I realized that I had to move on quickly and look in the same direction as my seniors.
Although that’s what she thought, it’s not like she was able to change her feelings that smoothly. Like many other members, it wasn’t a straight path towards the last live performance, but rather, her awareness of renaming from Keyakizaka46 to Sakurazaka46 and restarting was exceedingly vague.
As time passed after the renaming announcement, there were times when it honestly didn’t feel like we were changing our name. At the time, the staff members warned us that “New 2nd gens, your voices are too quiet!”, so I think the new 2nd generation members, myself included, loosened up. In fact, I was feeling kind of nonchalant myself. Although that’s how I felt in my awareness that the renaming was happening and for the last live, I properly felt how Keyakizaka46 is ending in a short while, and that the two days live performance will be our last. That’s why, while it may be too late, about a week before the last live I felt that I didn’t want to leave anything unfinished in Keyakizaka, and to not have any regrets.
With those somewhat unsettled feelings, she faced the last live performance. In the last performance of the first day, “Kuroi Hitsuji”, in a place not caught by the camera, this happened.
On the first day, the new 2nd generation members didn’t get to perform in many songs, but we joined “Kuroi Hitsuji” at the end. “Kuroi Hitsuji” is such an important song for the seniors, and the atmosphere is amazing too, isn’t it? So I was like, how do you say it? Um… I guess it felt like “What’s wrong? What’s wrong, myself?!” (laughs). That’s how much of a strange feeling it was to me. I also felt nervous. And then, during the performance of “Kuroi Hitsuji” on the day, the smoke goes fwoosh, and we are appearing amidst it. And Ozeki (Rika)-san was close to me.
And then, at the start of “Kuroi Hitsuji”, we all came together as one and hugged each other, and at that time Ozeki-san gripped my arm with such strength that I was shaking. Ozeki-san may not have cared whose arm it was, but in any case, she held my arm with truly great strength. And that is when my resolve (to rename Keyakizaka46 to Sakurazaka46 and start again) was decided in a true sense, or rather, I gave it my all, thinking that this might be the last time we perform “Kuroi Hitsuji”.
There is a choreography in “Kuroi Hitsuji” where we push each other, and I was paired with Tamura Hono-san to do that part, and I thought that we were able to seriously push against each other. After that, there is a choreography where I’m holding hands with Ozeki-san, and there too, Ozeki-san held it tightly with all her strength. With the strength of Ozeki-san’s hands, I think I was able to concentrate and perform until the end without slacking. I don’t remember most of the songs I perform regardless of the song, and it was the same with“Kuroi Hitsuji” on this day. However, the touch of Ozeki-san’s hand still remains even now.
It was that big of a thing for me, and it gave me the chance to get deeper into the song, amidst the seniors who “have become the song” instead of “expressing the song”, frantically, truly giving it everything… How should I put it? It’s difficult to describe things in words. But it was truly the moment where I made up my resolve. I’ll never forget it. Ozeki-san held my hand, I squeezed the hand of the member next to me with my other hand, and then everyone else did it and became united as one.
On the first day of the last live, Masumoto, along with other new 2nd generation members, spent a lot of time watching the performances of the seniors on the monitor backstage. The most memorable performance was ”Fukyouwaon”. She was shocked by the performance like never before.
I thought that I had never seen our seniors like that before. “Fukyouwaon” was already amazing since the rehearsals. It was like they’re already burnt out from rehearsals, or more like, they were falling in the middle of the song, icing parts of themselves that were in pain, applying cold compresses, everyone was pretty battered. But the actual performance on the day was even more amazing, and seeing the seniors’ performance of “Fukyouwaon” backstage through the monitor, I could hear them seemingly screaming and pumping each other up. Like “Aaah!!” or “Kyaahh!”.
As the setlist up until “Fukyouwaon” was also physically intense, they were breathing unsteadily and must have been close to their physical limits, but the seniors were still performing with all their might. It’s like, although they are burnt out already they are still burning, or like they are being moved by something other than physical strength. It reached my heart, and although I never performed that song, it gave me goosebumps the whole time I was watching it.
On the 2nd day of last live, the atmosphere of the setlist changed from the 1st day that had many hard beat songs, and the number of pop and cute songs increased. The first thing that came to Masumoto’s mind when she looked back to the 2nd day was the members’ smiles. Indeed, on the 2nd day of performance, from the opening to the end of the show, the members' natural and soft smiles never ceased.
There were a few members who were in tears during the group circle before the start of the show, but I think that once the live started the smiles quickly spread. What’s more, it’s not because someone said “It’s our last so let’s do our best with smiles!”, but because everyone was having fun together, smiles broke out naturally among the members.
If the setlist of the 1st day is filled with strong songs, you’d think that 2nd day would be filled with fun songs, but from the first song “Abunakkashii Keikaku” it’s already a song that makes everyone smile. When I wasn’t on stage, I was watching the performances through the monitor backstage, and I could feel that everyone was enjoying themselves naturally. To tell the truth, I was grinning in front of the monitor as I saw their smiles (laughs).
While enjoying the last live performance with a smile, Masumoto has something that she felt firmly and certainly received. It may be a product born out of Keyakizaka46’s intense five years, and one of the genes that will be passed on to Sakurazaka46 from here on.
I couldn’t watch the video on the monitor because of the timing (due to preparation for the next appearance and such), but when I was backstage, I could hear “Seifuku to Taiyou” being performed by the seniors. Their power of their singing at the time was really amazing. I couldn’t see the video, but I was captivated by their singing alone. Since the rehearsals, Takahiro-sensei and the staff have said that “The power of the current Keyakizaka’s singing is amazing too” for the other songs as well, and I think that “Seifuku to Taiyou” on that day expressed “The power of Keyakizaka’s singing”. That, and the lyrics stuck with me after all. Another song that left a strong impression on me is “Dare ga Sono Kane wo Narasu no Ka?”.
“Dare ga Sono Kane wo Narasu no Ka?” was the first song where I learned the choreography together with my seniors, and we have performed it several times on music shows on TV, and because I’m on the back row I could see the backs of my seniors. And I could see their “faces” looking at their backs, you know? By looking at their backs, I could tell what expressions they were showing. It was the same during the last live performance. The 2nd gens see the backs of the 1st gens, and we new 2nd gens the backs of the 2nd gens. From there, I can even see the expressions made by the seniors. I didn't want to break that feeling, that connection, so on that day’s “Dare ga Sono Kane wo Narasu no Ka?” I performed my hardest ever
After everyone performed “Dare ga Sono Kane wo Narasu no Ka?” together, the members lined up in a row while Captain Sugai Yuuka did their last MC as Keyakizaka46. From the depth of the feelings Sugai expressed there, Masumoto was able to understand the complicated feelings of the senior members at the very last moment. She realized that what she had felt when she saw the seniors after the renaming decision, especially the 1st generation members symbolized by Watanabe Risa's gaze, may have been a mistake.
After the renaming was decided, I had the impression that as a Captain, Sugai-san often expressed her feelings for Sakurazaka46 in a positive way, but that day Sugai-san talked about her feelings towards Keyakizaka, and from hearing those words I realized “Ah, so the seniors are feeling sad too, after all”, and I was also able to once again reaffirm that I was sad Keyakizaka46 was ending. Sugai-san looked back on everything up until now while crying, and I could hear her crying through the in-ear monitor.
Hearing Sugai-san’s tearful words, I realized that it was not so easy for her and the other seniors to accept the name change. I thought the seniors quickly put their feelings behind them and moved on, but it wasn’t that simple. I could feel from that last MC from Sugai-san, that in places I couldn’t see, each of the 1st generation seniors must have looked back on the past 5 years, somehow managed to sort out their feelings, digested them, and made up their minds to move forward.
On October 12th, the first day of the last live performance, Masumoto updated her official blog. There, she wrote, “The things I couldn't sort out, The things I haven't tried to sort out. As this day approached, I was able to face them naturally.”
"The things I couldn't sort out, The things I haven't tried to sort out” is about leaving Keyakizaka (renaming to Sakurazaka46). I didn’t face that reality at all, and I couldn’t sort it out in my mind, so it also didn’t really hit me. But I realized right before the last live performance, that it was perhaps because I hadn’t been trying to think about it. So in my mind, I played a video of Keyakizaka that I have always admired before I entered the group.
There, “Futari Sezon” was played a lot. Especially the scene where they are dancing on the stairs. I truly love it, and I’ve watched it over and over again. In this way, I faced the name change and I faced myself, and on the night before the last live, I realized again that I am a member of Keyakizaka46. About the renaming too, I have to recognize it and face it more properly as a member of Keyakizaka46.
Hearing this story, I thought that perhaps she might have become a "member of Keyakizaka46" again there. I asked her about it.
Yeah, it might be so. Because being a new 2nd gen member, there was only a short period of time where I was really able to do activities as a Keyakizaka46 member. In fact, the time I spent as a Sakamichi trainee before becoming a member of Keyakizaka, or even the period of preparation before that was longer. Immediately after joining Keyakizaka, we were affected by the COVID pandemic and it was decided we were to be renamed, so I didn’t really have the opportunity to work as a member of Keyakizaka46. So, just before the last live performance, I replayed the past footage of Keyaki in my head, and faced the reality of the name change as firmly as possible in my own way. I think I was finally able to become "Keyakizaka46’s Masumoto Kira" just before the last live performance by coming to the realization again that I am a part of Keyakizaka46.
However, the Keyakizaka46 that she was finally able to come to the realization that she is a part of is no more, and was reborn as Sakurazaka46 as soon as it finished its last live.
I’m constantly reborn as something new. I had my audition a little over 2 years ago, but I wasn’t immediately assigned to a group, and was announced to be a part of the Sakamichi trainees a year after the audition. And then about half a year later, I was assigned to Keyakizaka, and a little more than half a year later that, I became a member of Sakurazaka46. So I’ve never continued at something under the same circumstances, and I was always in a hurry, always feeling like "It's nice to meet you" (laughs).
But now that we’ve become Sakurazaka, and I think that Sakurazaka will continue forever, I don’t want to be left confused by any new experiences anymore. However, even during Keyakizaka I thought that it would continue forever, but in the end it wasn’t so, and now I understand that “nothing lasts forever”. So while believing that Sakurazaka will last forever, and without forgetting how nothing lasts forever, I want to cherish each and every moment from now on.
She loved Keyakizaka46, became a member of Keyakizaka46, and lost the place she belonged to called Keyakizaka46. Now that she is a member of Sakurazaka46, what kind of existence was Keyakizaka46 for her?
“An existence I wanted to know more about”. Also, I think Keyakizaka is a group that was often called "ephemeral" and I felt the same way. But it’s precisely because of this ephemeral nature, that I couldn't take my eyes off of them and they were always in my mind. Because no matter how I was feeling, there were always songs from Keyakizaka that I wanted to listen to.
Like a fun song when you're having fun, a song that you can lean on when you want to be comforted, a song that can make you strong when you want to be strong, and so on. And I think how the interpretation of each song changes depending on the listener is also very Keyakizaka-like. The same is true for "Sekai Ni wa Ai Shika Inai", "Futari Sezon", and "Kuroi Hitsuji". The reason why my interpretation of the songs change is also because I have also changed, which I think is very interesting for me personally.
As she spoke, she began to talk about her own changing interpretation of “Kuroi Hitsuji.
In the beginning, it looked like there were black sheep among the white sheep and the black sheep were being shunned by the white sheep, and that's all I could see, but that's not how it is. There are actually "black sheep" even within the white sheep and they are really just hiding it, which I came to think as we were performing it. So, in the end, I thought that everyone is a "black sheep". Isn't that amazing? You understand the lyrics so differently depending on your emotions, your perspective, and your position. If you think about it, every song has a story in it, and I think Keyakizaka46 really is amazing like that.
And that girl envisions the future of Sakurazaka46 to be like this.
From now on, I think that we will become such a group where each and every one of us will get more attention. I once read an interview of Kobayashi Yui-san in a magazine, where she said, "I want to shine as an individual without minding what position I am in. For that reason, I want to prioritize improving my skills first, because I will naturally attract more attention if I improve my skills”. When I read that, I thought, “That’s really it!”. I’m sure that it’s not only Kobayashi-san who thinks so, and not just myself who’s feeling “That’s it!”, but I think that all Sakurazaka members think that way. So I think that Sakurazaka46 will become a group where by improving each person's skills, each individual will be more visible.
Of course, she is aware that in order to become such a group, she also needs to grow herself.
Right now I’m imperfect in everything. I’m not good at talking, and during photoshoots I couldn’t smile well. But first of all, performance. I'm not very good at dancing right now, but I have a lot of room to grow because of that. If you think of it positively (laughs). However, if you compare the seniors’ past and recent footage, their growth is really amazing! If that's the case, I surely have the potential to grow too. Believing that, I want to grow steadily, and become someone who can be found no matter what position I’m in!
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