For some, it’s hard to think of AKB48 without thinking of their iconic music video for “Heavy Rotation”, which at the time of this writing has 140 million views on YouTube alone. The video shows the members of the time wearing lingerie in a slumber party setting. There’s also the yearly music videos taken on beaches with the members in bikinis such as “Everyday Kachuusha” and “Ponytail to Shushu”. But now the rumor is that AKB48 will be limiting these types of outfits for their younger members, at least as far as gravure goes.
While at Japan Expo A-To-J Connections was lucky enough to sit down with Linkstar's at Japan Expo LA and talk about their experiences in the US and their unique take on the idol music genre. Linkstar's is an idol group that debuted in 2013 and currently has four members. They specialize in strong performances that get their crowds hyped with their high energy singing and dancing!! Besides their activities as music artists, they also participate in various projects such as TV, film, and magazine appearances, both as a group and as individuals. Their performances at Japan Expo LA mark their first overseas debut. Their recent single "Linkstar" is available through various outlets in two versions. More links can be found at the end of the article. A-To-J: Thank you for the opportunity for the interview! Please introduce yourselves. Haru: I’m Linkstar’s oldest member, Haru Ootomo and my emblem is a ribbon! Nice to meet you. Arisa: I’m Arisa Matsunaga and my emblem is a star! Nice to meet you. Hinano: I’m Linkstar’s leader, Hinano Ayakawa. My emblem is a strawberry! My throat is a little hoarse but nice to meet you! Mana: My emblem is wings and I’m the youngest of the group, Mana Haneda! Nice to meet you. Linkstar's: We are Linkstar's! A-To-J: How are you liking it in America so far? Hinano: It's really cool! Haru: We've been enjoying ourselves! A-To-J: What did you like most about it here? Hinano: Everything! Haru: The food was really big! All of it was really tasty and yummy too! A-To-J: What is your favorite food here? Haru: We really liked the candy! A-To-J: Are there any music artists, Japanese or otherwise, you would like to collaborate with? Hinano: Taylor Swift! A-To-J: Can you tell us a little bit about your name “Linkstar’s” and the theme of Linkstar’s? Arisa: Its very free! Hinano: “Freestyle”! Arisa: Yes, “Freestyle”! (Nods) A-To-J: Can you tell us about your most recent work, music-wise? Such as your recent single or song? Arisa: We released our new single, “Linkstar” in June! Our group name is “Linkstar’s” and the CD title is “Linkstar” Hinano: A-type and B-type… theres two types! A-To-J: What is your favorite song in “Linkstar”? Hinano: “Linkstar”! (the title song) Arisa: It’s a masterpiece! The lyrics are great and you get happy and get positive power listening to this song. A-To-J: What are your thoughts about performing here in the US? Haru: We were worried at first because of the language barrier… but we used body language and our smiles. It was very fun! Arisa: Everyone gets hyped easily, so if she say “fuu~!” everyone also says “fuu~!” It was a very fun first overseas live. Linkstar’s: Thank you very much! [For the fun live] A-To-J: Can you tell us how all of you came to become Linkstar’s? Haru: We formed 3 years ago… and she (Mana) is the newest member! Arisa: She joined in March and we kind of ended up together… yea! (Laughs) Hinano: We were brought together [by others]. We’re the chosen ones! (Points finger to the sky) A-To-J: Are you guys fans of anime? Hinano: (Raises hand) “Me”! A-To-J: Whats your favorite anime? Hinano: Rozen Maiden! A-To-J: Can you tell us more about your time here in LA? Arisa: Since the language is here is very different from Japan, we gesture a lot and it’s kind of exciting! A-To-J: What about the fans? How are they different than those in Japan? Haru: They are all very friendly! Hinano: Yes! They also all had a lot of energy and moved a lot! Haru: Yeah, in general all the US fans were very nice and we hope to be able to come back! A-To-J: Are you fans of any other idol groups? Arisa: Yea! A-To-J: Which ones? Arisa: Momoiro Clover Z! Haru: I like Passpo. Hinano: Me? I like myself! (Gestures a thumbs up) Mana: I like Morning Musume. A-To-J: Do you have any funny stories of when you were performing? Hinano: I was trying to do a somersault like move but… Haru: But she tripped! Bam! Hinano: Not really tripped, but I fell on my butt! Haru: We’ve also had times where we bumped into each other. A-To-J: Were you still able to perform okay after falling? Hinano: It hurt a lot! Arisa: Also, when we were performing, my mic flew out of my hands! Haru: And then her shoe flew off too! Arisa: It did! A-To-J: Have you performed in other countries? Linkstar’s: No! A-To-J: Where would you like to perform overseas? Haru: France! Hinano: Yes! Haru: And… world tour!! Linkstar’s: Fuuu!! A-To-J: Where can we find more information about Linkstar’s? Hinano: Twitter! Arisa: We have an official Twitter account, please “follow me”! Hinano: @LINKS_OnAir! We also have LINE account, so you can message us! A-To-J: Can we message you and you’ll reply back? Haru: Yes! A-To-J: What are you plans after this? Haru: Since we'll still be here, we plan to go shopping and other fun things! Arisa: We'll also eat! A-To-J: Lastly, can you please give us a closing message. Haru: I’m very happy we were able to come to LA for the first time. We’re going to try hard to be able to come back, so please keep an eye on us! Arisa: We’ve never done lives outside of Japan but we were able to perform overseas for the first time. I’m very happy that we were able to come here to LA and do our first overseas live, it was fun! Thank you! Hinano: This was our first overseas live and we got to do it in LA! I was excited before we came here but I ended up with this voice (from her hoarse throat) and I’m disappointed! However, I had a lot of fun and enjoyed it here! “Very happy!” Thank you very much! Mana: We got to do our first overseas live in LA and I now love LA! Thank you very much! To find out more about Linstar's visit them at: Website: linkstar-s.com Twitter: twitter.com/LINKS_OnAir Blog: lineblog.me/linkstars The above interview was conducted by Manuel Figueroa with assistance by Molly Ring and filming by Eunice Wang. Post translation by Tiffany Fujii. Linkstar 's- Linkstar We recently caught up with rock-idol group “564” (Also known as “Goho Lolita Syndrome”) at Japan Expo LA and talked to them about their shows in the US!
564 is made up of Hiro and Halu and are actually second generation members of the group. They have a very unique sound that is both rocking and cute! Their fans get more than a little wild at their shows too and this was witnessed first-hand by the A-To-J members who were present! A-To-J: Please introduce yourself. Hiro: Hi I’m Hiro. Halu: Hi I’m Halu. A-To-J: How are you enjoying your time in America? Hiro: Am I enjoying it here? Yes! Halu: How should I say this? Hiro: Well first the cityscape… Halu: The cityscape is like what you would see in a movie. We look at the buildings and think: “Ah, we’ve come to America, we’ve come to Los Angeles!” Hiro: Next would be… Halu: The food! There are a lot of kinds of food that is different from Japan. Things we haven’t even seen before… Hiro: The convenience store sells very different things as well so it’s fun! A-To-J: Have you eaten something very different from back home? Hiro: Oh! There were strawberries in the salad! Halu: Yea! You don’t see that in Japan. It was surprising to see strawberries in a salad… Also I bought a sandwich that has cranberry and chicken in it from 7 Eleven, which I’ve never seen before either. I haven’t eaten it yet but that was a surprising combination to see! Hiro: Putting… “fruits in….” (In English) Halu: You don’t have to try to say it in English (Laughs) Hiro: I want to say, why would you put fruits in there?? Halu: In Japan they don’t put much fruits so it was quite surprising… A-To-J: What was some of the differences performing in front of the US fans? Halu: The main thing was the language… Since we don’t do MCs, we usually tell the audience “be louder” or things like that during the instrumental parts of the songs but we had a difficult time trying to think of ways to communicate that to the people here. We had to brace ourselves to use English… Hiro: But if say “wai wai!” the audience will do it with us! Halu: I think even if it was a little bit, they understood us. A-To-J: If you had to describe the genre of music you do to someone that has never heard of you before, how would you describe it to them? Halu: We’re cool and intense, but we would tell them that we’re still Japanese idols! Hiro: We’re idols that mix the “emotional” style and “moe” or cute Japanese style. A-To-J: What are your favorite musical artists? Halu: Since I like bands… I don’t listen to many bands overseas but for Japanese bands, I like a lot of intense bands. I go to lives and watch their live videos as well. A-To-J: Out of the songs you performed, which one was your favorite song? Hiro: “Kaika Sensen” JAWEYE-san, the person that was with us, made this song for us. It goes from intense to cute tones so it’s fun. A-To-J: Where in the world would you like to perform the most? 564: Anywhere?? I wonder where we would want to go… Hiro: This is actually my second time overseas… Halu: Maybe a place that we’ve never seen before… Then we can have the people of that place listen to our music so we can see their reactions to it. A developing country maybe… Hiro: With tribal people or something? Halu: Yeah! I would like to go to those kinds of places with a completely different culture and perform in front of them. I want to see if they still think we are enjoyable or if they would be surprised. A-To-J: Do you have any funny stories from any of your performances? Hiro: Like the time someone broke their bone? Halu: The audience is intense as well so they like to mosh so sometimes they end up with nosebleeds or broken teeth and glasses as well… But it happens often with audiences of artists in our genre. Hiro: Yes, quite often. For us it would be… Halu: We almost fell off the stage one time… actually we did fell… twice. (Laughs) Hiro: We get too excited! Halu: And when we get too excited we don’t see clearly and we fell off because of it. A-To-J: What are your next immediate plans for your music? Halu: Since we’ve gotten an opportunity to perform overseas so we want more overseas fans to know us. Hiro: We want to do lives in many different places. A-To-J: Please send a final message to your fans. Halu: We’re very happy that we were able to come to LA for the first time as 564! Since we met a lot of people that heard us for the first time, we hope we can use this chance for them to know us. We’re looking forward to the next time we can meet again! Thank you very much! For more information on 564/Goho Lolita Syndrome: Official Website: lolisyn564.com Twitter: @lolisyn The above interview was conducted by Manuel Figueroa with assistance by Molly Ring, filming by Eunice Wang, and translation by Tiffany Fujii. Nathan (L4verra) and I have mainly bonded over two things: baseball and having underrated Nogizaka46 oshimen. He recently posted an appreciation article of his oshi, Wada Maaya, [It can be seen here] which made me decide that it was about time the world learns about my oshi. Kawamura Mahiro. For a long time I didn’t really have an oshi. I always gravitated towards Kojima Haruna from AKB48, but that was really only because it was decided (by others) that she would be the one who I would cosplay from AKB0048 (which was my introduction to idols). I decided that I was going to go through every page on Stage48 (A 48G wiki for those that don’t know. It can be found here.) to find the one girl I liked best. This is not the best way to find an oshi… but it worked. [Editor’s Note: I actually found my 48G oshi in a similar manner!] As I was looking through the pages there were a lot of cute girls, many of them had interesting backgrounds, but then I saw a picture of a girl that completely caught my attention to the point where I couldn’t get it out of my head. This is the picture I that made me fall in (platonic) love with Rottii. It’s not even the best picture of her but something about it kept it in my head. Ever since then I’ve been hooked. Everything I learned about Rottii just made me love her more and more. She is considered by many other Nogi members to be the best singer in the group [1]. As a singer myself, this solidified her spot in my heart. She even writes and composes her own songs! She has also been praised for her dancing skills, including being chosen as the best dancer/oshimen of a guest on an episode of "Nogizakatte, Doko?” [2]. I will always say she is the most underrated girl in the group talent wise, but I could be biased. Rottii is from the Kansai region of Japan (Osaka), which is where I studied when I was an exchange student back in high school (automatic brownie points!). She won an audition with the Up-Front Kansai Agency before becoming a member of Nogizaka, which just proves that she’s not someone who only succeeds in one audition. All of this and she’s still only been on 2 A-sides? I can’t even. As your reading this, you may be wondering where the nickname Rottii comes from. In all honesty, I’m not really sure. But I love it. I think ~technically~ it’s supposed to be the English name “Lotty" as she herself spells it “Rotty” when using romaji. For what I hope are obvious reasons, that is not my favorite way to spell her nickname, but she does it so I still support it 100%. I didn’t think I had maternal instincts until I became a Rottii oshi. I want her to succeed so bad sometimes it hurts. I get sad when she cries; I get happy when she smiles; if she were to get bullied in school I would call the bullies parents and have a stern talking with them. And for those that know me, you know that means she’s kind of a big deal <3. Peace out nerds! -marisuga Videos to prove my points! [1] Skip to 8:00 [2] Mahiro Dance from zannen shoujo on Vimeo. |
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