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  Leaving big marks in their crown TV show ‘Soko Magattara, Sakurazaka?’, Sakurazaka46’s New 2nd generation Masumoto Kira; Where does her overwhelming variety strength come from? Sakurazaka fans pay attention, as we dive deep into the mysteries of Kira World! You've been getting a lot of attention from the impact you made in the group's variety show SokoSaku, but have you always been fond of variety shows?   Actually, I pretty much haven't watched TV since middle school. I was busy with club activities in middle school, and busy with part-time job in high school. I didn’t have time for TV Then the burikko pose in SokoSaku that invited laughter was a stroke of genius! That time, before it, I received an advice of Uemura-san who said, “What about doing an angry burikko pose?”, and I did it with the intention of showing a bit of a cute angry look… But I have the personality that can only go 1 or 10, and I was leaning more on the “angry” side, and I showed such a... The way y...

At the time of Keyakizaka46’s second single, it was a turbulent time when all members shot a drama together, but with what kind of feeling do you spend your days this time? Yuuka: That’s right… We, 1st generation members, have experienced this once. I think that we want to enjoy the unique atmosphere and the flow of time while carefully cherishing our daily lives. However, for 2nd generation members, it is filled with nothing but new experiences, so I would like us to support them. But since we became Sakurazaka, overall, that moody phase has faded away. During Keyaki time, I was told that the feeling of danger and explosiveness is appealing, but the team has become more balanced with having three centers. When I watched the live performance video from TGC the other day, I felt that a stable feeling was shown.” You can see that each 2nd generation members has accumulated good experiences Yuuka: It is said that experience is the best teacher, but watching them from the side I feel that ...

  Nice to meet you, I’m Morita Hikaru. In this running series, I would like to tell the readers all about myself so that they can get to know me better. On this first issue, I’ll be talking about myself personally. I’m part of the group Sakurazaka46, a group that cherishes each and every member and their own personalities. We changed our group name to Sakurazaka46 last year and with that change brought a little bit of color to our image. When I was told that I was going to be the center for the new single I was surprised because I didn’t know anything beforehand. I was, of course, glad to be the center but I also had a lot of other feelings mixed up inside of me that made me cry. Even during filming for the MV I was always flustered about whether or not I should be the one to do this.  From the beginning, I was never the type to get nervous nor do the same things over and over again everyday. Whenever I start something new instead of being the type to worry I instead get worke...

Matsuda the Lubricating Oil Tsuchida-san has been entrusted as the MC of “Keyaki tte Kakenai?” and “Soko Magattara, Sakurazaka?” with Haraichi Sawabe-san for more than 5 years Tsuchida: Until then, I had worked with various idols, and in each group there was always someone who would say, “I’m the variety member!”. Keyakizaka46 had no one like that, so at first I was surprised, But I don’t think that’s a bad thing; If you were to say that you are the most interesting person in a small village, I don’t think that amounts to anything outside of it. Sashihara (Rino) said that as she quickly realized that when she went out to the outside world (laughs). In the interview with production staff, there are comments that from the latter half of Keyakake, the atmosphere has changed. Tsuchida: People often say “It has become brighter lately”, and if you say “So it was dark before?”, it wasn’t like that, we have been having fun doing it since long ago. But at first, there were only the 1st generati...

  Our own group It has been roughly 4 months since the start of Sakurazaka46. With the release of the single “Nobody’s fault” and the appearance on “Kouhaku Uta Gassen”,  it feels as though your activities have really begun from the perspective of the audience, but personally have you felt any changes? Sugai: I think the atmosphere has become “Sakurazaka46”. At the beginning it was difficult for us to match our pace, but after we performed “Nobody’s fault” at last year’s Kouhaku, something changed.  Matsuda: I feel as though the awareness that “Sakurazaka46 is our group” has blossomed. I don’t know how to phrase it properly, but during Keyakizaka46, we were so conscious of the fact that the group was something that our seniors had created [for us]. But now the awareness that, “This is our group”, has become stronger I think. But that isn’t really because we stepped into the role of Sakurazaka46, but rather it might be that we feel that way because the amount of time we’ve...

This is the first time our magazine is featuring Sakurazaka46 since their renaming, and as we want to include their namesake program that has also changed from the time of Keyakizaka46, we would like to talk with Shoji-san who has been the narrator ever since the time of “Keyaki tte Kakenai?” Shoji: Up until now I’ve been involved in various programs, but I couldn’t imagine being interviewed like this as a narrator when it comes to other shows. Even if there are times where I get interviewed for acting out characters in animations and games, I feel that I have almost no interviews as a narrator. I think it’s unusual for people to recognize narration or narrators. I think that in other shows, people just simply watch. And then later they might be like, “Oh, I feel like I've heard this person before.” I think it’s very special for my name to be recognized (laughs) It certainly might be a peculiar phenomenon when it comes to idol shows. Shoji-san, you often talk about the show on Twit...