news_jpop | NEWS news (week of Aug 27)

Sorashige Book (Aug 26)
- The first message was from a listener who wrote in about Zero, they talked about how they usually don’t watch a lot of this kind of media but they’ve been enjoying the drama. They wrote about Massu’s appearance and how they were looking forward to Tegoshi and Koyama’s appearances, and they’re already sure they’ll miss the drama once it finishes airing.
  Shige thanked them for the letter and commented on how there’s a bit of time gap between when it was written and when he’s reading it here. He talked about how since they are filming the Hulu episodes too, they’ve filmed about 14 episodes total so it’s really tough. He hasn’t appeared much in the Hulu episodes, but the filming team is the same it must be tough and they’re working in the heat. He talked about how it feels like no matter how much they do it’s never ending, and how he’s acted in situations like where he’s tied up, or submerged in water, or can only act with his face, or his face hidden. It means he can’t act as freely as he’s used to, and it makes him think and it’s interesting. He said that Massu’s finished, and Tegoshi is appearing now, and he wondered what role Koyama will have since he doesn’t know either.
- ♪ ‘Ikiro’ ♪
- For music club this week he said he had wanted to play this song, and it’s gotten a bit late, but in April Post Malone’s album ‘ Beerbongs & Bentleys’ came out. He talked about how he played at Fuji Rock (though Shige wasn’t able to go himself) and got lots of attention from that. He talked about Post Malone and how people may be surprised from looking at him, but he’s only 23 years old. He talked about how he’s a singer/songwriter/rapper and how he’s talented. He played his song ‘Psycho ft. Ty Dolla $ign’ which he said that it seems to be playing everywhere he goes. He talked about how it makes you want to sing along, and how psycho comes from the word ‘psychopath’ but also refers to people who try to get close to people with money (sycophant). He talked about Post Malone for a while more, discussing his tattoos, and his history of being bullied when he was younger.
- The next letter was from a listener who said that no matter what they do they lack confidence in themselves, and no matter how hard they work they always feel like something is lacking, and can’t take compliments. They know that this isn’t good, but can’t change. Since they can’t change, they’ve started to feel like they’re a horrible person and so they lose even more value for themselves. They want to fix this but they can’t, they work as a teacher in elementary school, and they try to teach their students to be confident and love themselves, but they hate themself. They put on a smile for the kids, but feel like they’re lying every day. They think that there must be other listeners who feel the same way, and they wanted Shige to share how he thinks about and holds value in himself.
  Shige said that he too doesn’t have a lot of self esteem, and he can really understand how the listener feels. He wonders if he’s really in a position to be giving advice on the radio like this or on NEWS na Futari. He’s gotten tired of thinking about what his value is, and there are many things he feels like he’s not good at, but the reason to do it is because it’s fun. He feels like if you try to enjoy something you can get enjoyment from it. A lot of the time, he feels like it’s pointless to try and raise your self esteem. Though some might disagree, he thinks it’s most important to do what you love. For the listener, he hopes that they can teach the students how to love themselves no matter who they are. He feels that because they struggle with this, they can understand. They’re well equipped to teach the kids to not feel that way.
  He said that there’s no right answer. He talked about a book that was recommended by air:man called ‘Sono Nayami, Tetsugakusha ga Sudeni Kotae wo Dashiteimasu (Philosophers already have an answer to your problem)’, and that it’s been getting a lot of buzz lately. It has a lot of different troubles people have and answers to them by philosophers, he said that it was fun and short so it’s quick to read. It may have an answer for the listener.
- ♪ SUMMER TIME ♪

Kchan NEWS (Aug 28)
- The guest this week was Massu.
- The opened up by talking about how they had work together today and now they’re recording Kchan NEWS fairly late at night, at 24:05. They talked about how Massu has been on Kchan NEWS a lot recently, and Koyama apologized and Massu said that it’s a good thing.
  Koyama commented on how Massu’s drinking ice coffee and asked him if it’s really ok for him to drink that at this hour. Massu said that it’s keeping him awake.
- The first letter was from a listener who said that they saw ‘Only You’ on the second day in Osaka. They said they were surprised and moved by how much Shakespeare and Johnny’s music went well together. They said that they liked the costumes, and how it made them think even more that they’d like to do a job related to plays or concerts. They said that they were glad that this was their first play and thanked him.
  Massu said that he was glad, and added that he the things, the image, that sticks with him the most from concerts and things he watches, is the costumes. He makes the concerts with the thought that those are the ‘pictures’ he wants to last. Koyama asked him if he did anything for the ‘Only You’ costumes and Massu said he didn’t do anything for them or request anything. Massu also mentioned that the person who did them was the same person who did their costumes for Blue, the person who makes costumes for NEWS when it’s not Massu making them, also does a lot of costumes for plays.
  Koyama said that he had been wondering how they’d put the Johnny’s songs in the play, but that they really did fit well together. And Massu really suited it too. Massu tried to say that since he’s a Johnny, he has a Romeo feeling to him but he flubbed his line and Koyama teased him.
  Koyama was praising Massu and commented how Massu must have picked the songs and Massu said that he didn’t, they were in the script. He also had meetings to discuss which ones he couldn’t do in the original key and someone would adjust it for the play, but Massu said that he would sing them all in the original key. Koyama asked him which was the highest, and Massu said that Hey!Say!JUMP’s ‘Weekender’ was the hardest. Koyama asked him if it was higher than NEWS’ songs or about the same, and Massu said that the energy was very pop and high, plus he’s dancing original choreography. Massu said that the tempo is very similar to ‘Full Swing’.
  Koyama said that he was also surprised to see that Massu was singing the full songs, not shortened versions, and he sang 12 songs. Massu agreed and said that it’s him singing the whole song. Koyama commented on how busy he’s been and asked him how he was feeling physically and mentally. Massu said that it crossed a line, he’s been in the entertainment business for 20 years now but this is the busiest he’s ever been, but he’s happy about it, it was fulfilling. He said it was fun to count how long it’d been since he had a break, saying to his manager ‘Wow, I haven’t had a break in about 3 months’ and the manager replied, ‘Well, no you had a break about 4 days ago’ he was so busy he forgot about it, he spent most of his time off sleeping.
  Koyama asked him how it’s been now that things have calmed down, and Massu said that he cleaned his floors. Massu said that when he finishes a work, it’s a change of pace and he does things like clean the house or buy new clothes.
  K: Isn’t that just the same as usual? (laughing)
  M: Ah, yeah.
  Koyama congratulated him on his hard work, and Massu thanked Koyama for coming and for bringing dango and talked about how it was a set of 6 different ones.
- ♪ Shock Me ♪
- The next letter was from a listener who asked them if they hang their clothes to dry inside or outside. They said that they’re from Hokkaido, so they hung them indoors, but since coming to Tokyo they started hanging them outside. They can’t help but feel like their clothes are dirty from being outside, they wanted to know what the two of them think since they’re clean freaks.
  K: Massu, what do you do with your laundry?
  M: Please don’t ask me those kind of private things.
  K: What’s with this so suddenly.
  Koyama told him that they’ve already entered this territory with Massu saying that he cleaned his floors and told him to answer. Massu said that he has a drying machine that he uses to get them mostly dry and then hangs them up after that to dry the rest of the way, because he feels like they’ll shrink if he dries them all the way in the drying machine. Koyama asked him if there aren’t times when he forgets to get them out before the drying cycle finishes, and Massu said that if that happens then it’s fine. They then talked about the different types of things that do and don’t shrink and Massu said towels should be fine and Koyama gave a warning to listeners that the strawberry tshirt will shrink so to be careful. Koyama asked if the Epcotia tshirt wouldn’t shrink and Massu explained it wouldn’t because of the material, and Koyama was surprised at his knowledge and Massu was offended saying that people don’t realize how much effort he puts in with picking the fabric out too. They talked about laundry for awhile more, and Massu talked about how he hangs up the laundry that he puts in for a full cycle too, like bath towels, because he doesn’t trust that they’ve fully dried. Koyama protested that he can just touch them to know, but Massu said that you can’t tell if they’re still wet when they come out.
  Koyama said that he has two different hampers, one for clothes that can be dried in the drying machine and one that can’t. Massu was surprised saying that two hampers would take up a lot of space, he then asked about color and Koyama said that he doesn’t pay much attention to separating those, but every once in awhile his clothes will turn pink. Massu agreed saying his shirts often end up turning pink, and told a story about how once a piece of gray and light green clothes transferred color onto each other so they both ended up becoming some unrecognizable color and how he tried to rewash them quickly but the color stayed the same.
  Koyama said that he doesn’t hang his clothes up outside, Massu said it depends on the environment maybe if he lived deep in the woods, but then realized he’d then have to worry about bugs. Koyama said that he’s talked about this on tv before, but for him once clothes have come in contact with outside air, then they are ‘outdoors clothes’. If he were to go to the convenience store in his pajamas, then he wouldn’t be able to wear them in his house. Masu agreed, and said that that wasn’t being a clean freak at all. So Koyama asked Gai-san if he would be ok with wearing his pajamas that he wore to the convenienve store inside and Gai-san said he would. Massu asked him if he could sleep in those pajamas too and he said he could to Koyama’s shock. Koyama said that Shige probably could as well, and Tegoshi too. Massu protested again that they aren’t clean freaks, they just have their customs. He joked that Gai-san came in this pajamas today and Koyama told him to cut it out.
- ♪ ‘Ikiro’ ♪
- At the end they did PR for Zero and Ikiro.

Tegomass no Radio (Aug 29)
- At the opening, they talked about how the anniversary concerts finished without issues, and how amazing it was that only the area around Ajinomoto Stadium didn’t rain.
  T: The agency sent a message to tell the clouds to go away because they’re in the way, and BAM! They disappeared.
  Sakura: Johnny-san is really amazing, huh.
  M: (imitating Johnny-san) “You, get out of the way!”
  T: “You’re in the way, so get out.”
  Sakura: Ah, he told the clouds to get out of the way and they did?
  T: Yeah. Everyone should thank Johnny-san.
  Massu said there might have been people who got caught in the rain on the way home from the second day’s concert though, like how the staff got drenched. They felt bad when they saw the staff all drenched, when they went on their round to greet everyone after the concerts ended.
- Massu also talked about how his plays ended, and how Tegoshi said he’d go watch 12 times.
  T: I did, I did!
  M: You came?
  T: I did!
  Sakura: 12 times?
  T: 13 times, I think? I did, I did.
  Tegoshi said he properly texted Massu once, to tell Massu he was going to watch, then went to watch the rest under cover. He didn’t want the fans to notice and cause a ruckus, since Massu was the star. So he made sure he went unnoticed.
  T: The singing for the 8th show was really good!
  Sakura: 8th show…
  T: I watched 13 times, but the 8th show was the best.
  M: The 8th show out of 13!? What about the rest then?
  T: Ah they were all good! Just that the 8th was especially good.
  Sakura then reminded Tegoshi how there weren’t even 13 shows left, the last time they talked about the play and Tegoshi said he hasn’t been. To which he said he went to Osaka, all of the shows.
  T: Hmm? The takoyaki didn’t get delivered?
  M: Nope.
  T: Ahhhhh… it must have been the manager!
  M: The manager ate them up?
  T: The manager ate them…!!!
  Massu and Sakura went with Tegoshi’s story a little more before saying they’re going to move on to the request.
- The request this week was for “Aoi Bench”. The listener went for the second show, really enjoyed themselves. They were extremely glad to have been able to hear Tegomass singing again and hope they have activities again someday.
  Massu and Tegoshi shared how “Aoi Bench” wasn’t originally part of the set list. They only decided to add it in the very last minute, as they figured Tegomass is part of NEWS’s 15 years of history too. They were happy to be able to sing in a very long time.
- ♪ Aoi Bench ♪
- The second mail was from someone who went to the first show of the anniversary concerts, and sent in their comments on the show, including how they were touched to tears by the amount of thought that went into the videos and costumes. The listener would like to hear their episodes on the concerts, if they have any. Tegoshi talked about how Shige slipped during “BLUE” on the first day, during Massu’s rap.
  T: It rained before the concert started, so the floor was “slippy”. So he fell down real hard.
  Sakura: “Slippy”?
  M: Can’t help but zoom in on “slippy”.
  T: Ehh…no way! People use “slippy” to describe that, don’t they?
  Sakura: I just heard this the first time.
  T: “It’s ‘slippy’ because of the rain.” No? We use that during soccer.
  Tegoshi said the programme will end if they got stuck at “slippy”. But Shige-chan slipped because it was “slippy”.
  M: Shige-py got slippy.
  They then talked about how there were technical issues and audio was bad for the first concert, and how for outdoor concerts, they really should have had an additional run of rehearsals just for audio. But they couldn’t, as the venue was located in a residential area, hence a lot of restrictions on what they could and couldn’t do. They only had proper audio rehearsals for maybe 2 or 3 songs. While they did a full run the day before at the exact same time to see how everything would go, they had no way of doing sound checks.
  M: When the concert started with “BLUE”, the audio was so loud, I was like, “What’s this!” and felt really blue.
  T: AHHHHHHHHHHHH. AH! AH! AH! AH!
  Sakura: Ahhhhhh…..
  They then thanked the listener and was glad the listener had a good time.
- The third message was from someone who went to the concert with their 16 year-old daughter. Their daughter felt it’s amazing NEWS has been around for 15 years. Come to think of it, 15 years is almost all of their daughter’s life, and about half of Tegomass’ lives. A lot has happened, but it’s only natural a lot has happened, considering it’s been so many years. They’re glad to have been able to celebrate this milestone of NEWS with everyone. They wanted to know why NEWS decided to hold the concert with just the 4 of them, despite the venue being way larger than usual.
  Massu said they’ve been involved in the production of the juniors’ performances (at their concerts) since maybe the 10th anniversary, asking for the same members when possible, and having new additions when some couldn’t make it. There about 30 of such juniors who’re usually with NEWS at their concerts and they were hoping all of them could make it for this one. They asked all of them but quite a few couldn’t, like Taiga (the leader of the juniors and who entered the agency at the same time as Tegoshi). While they felt bad towards those who could make it, they didn’t want to have the juniors appear without proper meaning, so they thought they’d do it with just the four of them. The juniors who’ve been with them for the recent concerts all came to watch though. Like Shindo Itsuki, who went for both concerts, and even the presales.
  T: We asked if he didn’t get discovered by the fans, and he did. Obviously, right? After he’s danced with Shige so much.
  Sakura: That’s cute!
  They said the juniors were all cute. It’s important to them that the juniors enjoy touring with NEWS. That the juniors all tell them they do makes them really cute, and NEWS happy. But yeah, this is why they did the concerts with just the 4 of them.
  T: (in English) NEXT!!!
- The fourth message was from someone who wrote about how cute the concert merchandise for the anniversary concert were, and agreed with how Tegoshi said in one of the VTRs that “Kawaii is part of Japan’s culture.” They noticed that there were scribblings as part of the uchiwa design this time, and wanted to know how they picked the colours and all.
  They said they had a designer come in and help them with the merchandise, as well as the cake decorating VTR. The strawberry logo was made by this designer too. Tegoshi shared how his alarm clock went off really early in the morning the day before. He guessed his mother must have set it by mistake when she came over. Since there were 2 clocks, one from the 10th anniversary and one from the 15th, she placed the 15th clock out and took the older clock home. She probably set it by mistake, so it went off super early in the morning and Tegoshi got really pissed off.
  M: Stop raging.
  T: No, I mean, I got woken up by my own voice. Won’t you get pissed off if it happened to you? Like, “Shut up. Oei.”
  M: That’s only because it was Tegoshi’s voice, isn’t it.
  Sakura: Yeah. We’re always listening to it all the time.
  T: EH!
  M: So we’re always feeling pissed off.
  T: You’re pissed off now?
  Sakura: Yeah I am.
  T: WAHHHHHHHHH! Here goes. This. I’m getting bullied, everyone. On Tegomass no Radio. What do you listeners think of this!
  M: You finally realised it yourself.
  T: AHHHHH.
  Sakura: We thought you would never realise.
  T: No way! If “ignorance is bliss” exists, this would be it.
  M: Yeah.
  T: I never realised. We’re doing this for the 385th time and I never realised.
  M: And the bullying has been around since about the 356th episode. But well, depending on how you look at it, we are the ones getting bullied instead.
  Sakura: Yeah, we’re the ones bullied. Like how the “NEXT!” just now was really noisy too, and nobody even needed that.
  T: THAT’S FINE isn’t it. If I have to control myself such things, I won’t be able to do this.
  Massu said if someone was listening at home with a bigger speaker, it’d probably go “poof” at Tegoshi’s voice. Tegoshi apologised for ruining everyone’s speakers and said he’d be careful.
  Back to the topic on the merchandise, Sakura asked if they had any favourites. Both Tegoshi and Massu said they wear the Tshirts, and Tegoshi even wore that to the convenience store that morning.
  Sakura: EH! No way!
  Tegoshi said he only realised when he entered the convenience store that he was wearing a NEWS tee, and it’s embarrassing. (T: Cute, right?) He said he wore the tee to the convenience store and bought chicken breast.
  Massu said the Tshirt is Massu-designed – A Massu-designed tshirt that outright plagiarized the design of their debut costumes. He also liked the group poster and the crossbody sling bag. He shared how it’s a shorter version of what’s in fashion now, and he was working on it after “PON!”. The staff would bring the work-in-progress to him after “PON!” and they’d work on it then.
  Tegoshi also brought up how because the merchandise were all so cute, they got sold out at around noon the second day. They felt really bad towards the fans who were only going to join the goods queue after. They did ask if they could have the goods sold online, but it wouldn’t be in time, so the additional sales would be at the Johnny’s shop. Just the Tshirt and the towel. As there are only four Johnny’s shops available, they feel bad about fans who won’t be able to access the merchandise. Massu added that it’d be nice as long as it gets out to even a bit more fans, and that it’s the first time they managed to have merchandise go on sale outside of concerts.
- The fifth message talked about how they were really touched by Massu’s idea of designing a set of costumes in a member’s member colour from 4 years ago. They’d like to hear more about the costumes if possible. Massu said how the pink costumes for WHITE were initially designed with the idea of singing “Sakura Girl” at the center stage of Tokyo Dome in pink, since that was how it was since 6-member days. So it wasn’t Tegoshi’s pink, but more of wanting the 4 of them to wear pink while singing “Sakura Girl” at the center stage. During that tour, he realised pink was Tegoshi’s colour, and he started thinking of how if he started creating costumes out of another member colour for the next one, he’d eventually have all 4 colours. While the pink costumes for WHITE wasn’t originally created with the idea of creating member colour costumes, he started thinking about it that tour. The next member colour happened to be yellow, and it was when he made the green camo ones that he told the rest about his plan. He wanted to keep the costumes for each of them to wear, for a significant occasion like the 15th anniversary, so he told them to treat the costumes with care.
  Even though it’s the norm for unused costumes to be passed down to the juniors, they have most of their costumes kept away. It’s a dream of Massu’s to hold a costumes exhibit.
  T: We just had one, didn’t we.
  M: That was just for “NEVERLAND”.
  T: Ah, you mean for everything?
  Massu said it’d be nice to have all the costumes exhibited, and he’d like to do it someday. That’s why he’s got all their costumes put away, and it seems the costumes room is getting stuffed. Sakura said she’d like to see it someday.
  T: NEXT!!!
- The sixth message was from someone who went to the first concert and commented on how both the listener and their mother were surprised by how Massu’s hair was different from just a while back. Does he decide on his hairstyle for concerts beforehand? Both of them also found the feathers in Tegoshi’s hair cute. Did he request for them himself, or was it part of the costumes?
  Sakura said she didn’t manage to attend the concerts so she can’t be sure, but from just her imagination, feathers in Tegoshi’s hair must have looked dumb. She’s sure it must have been cute though, right?
  M: As for whether they were part of the costumes, i.e., me, nope, they weren’t. Totally not.
  Tegoshi said he always leaves his hair up to the stylist, be it for magazines or music programmes. The stylist brought the feathers there that day, so he said, “Go ahead go ahead~” He never makes requests either when he goes for haircuts.
  Sakura: You don’t say anything?
  T: Nope.
  M: So the same goes for that blond colour too?
  T: No no no… when I decided to go blonde, I asked for it myself.
  M: WAHHHH he’s made requests!
  Tegoshi said he hadn’t made any requests since, and the lowlights that he just got were also suggested by the hairstylist.
  M, Sakura: Hmmmmmmmmmmm~
  T: What!
  M: Hurhurhurhurhur!
  T: What! Oei, what!
  Massu then asked what if the hairstylist decides to keep adding lowlights and Tegoshi’s hair just gets darker and darker? He said he’s sure the hairstylist would discuss with him, and he’d reply to tell them not to overdo it. Though he does give his opinion on the general direction, it’s the same person he goes to each time so he doesn’t make fine requests. He usually just sleeps his way through. Tegoshi asked if Massu makes a lot of requests and was surprised when Massu said no. Of course he gives opinions on his fringe, like if he wanted to keep it or have it sniped off, but he doesn’t say much otherwise. For “Only You”, he explained the role and the image they wanted to have to the hairstylist and left it up to the hairstylist. But for “Zero”, the producer requested him to cut his fringe, so he did. (T, Sakura: Hehhh~) After he got his fringe cut, he was told it didn’t have to be that short, but he’d already cut it off. As for the concert hair, he said he wanted a change after the play, so he went to the hair saloon before the rehearsals on Aug 10. But since he was tired, he fell asleep. When he woke up, his hair was already the way it was.
  T: While drooling, like he does best, huh.
  M: Even if I did drool, it won’t get to my clothes.
  T: Ah right! Because there’s the gown.
  Tegoshi said he had his roots retouched during “Zero”, and his hair ended up really blond.
  M: Yeah, I thought, “Tegoshi’s in trouble. It’s really sensitive to do things to the hair during drama filming.”
  Tegoshi said his hair had grown out and he wouldn’t want to have such hair for the concerts, so after discussing with the hair and makeup person, and decided to have his roots touched up. The same colour as his hair was when he went. But it ended up super blond. So they used hair sprays to make his hair look more similar to the hair he had in the scenes they short earlier. They then joked a little about how his hair moves a lot, maybe it’s a wig, and he was starting to talk about some treatment he gets at the saloon when they cut him off.
- At the ending, they promoted “Ikiro”. They also talked about how “LVE” is made by the same team who made “Yoruyo Odore”, and that it’s an amazing song. (T: It’s wild. Like, “No other Johnny’s would sing such a song.” M: It’s not just a song. T: Nope.)

Masuda Takahisa no Master Hits (Aug 31)
- At the opening, he talked about how it’s Aug 31, which means the school term would probably resume in another 3 days. He recalled having to do assignments over the summer holidays, and how although some people would distribute the load and do a bit each day, he’d leave everything to the last 3 days. That’s not unplanned though. He’d plan to finish his assignments over the last 3 days... but not be able to finish. He asked those rushing their assignments to do their best.
- The first listener asked the sauce Massu would prefer for his hamburger steak – garlic soy sauce or tomato cheese sauce. He chose ponzu with grated daikon.
- ♪ Ikiro ♪
- The second message was from someone who asked what meant by what he wrote in Marumaru a while back – asking people not to go watch the play he was involved in as if they were going to watch a concert, but to focus on their acting. He explained he wasn’t just referring specifically to his stage play, as there is an appropriate etiquette to every occasion. Like how people would probably dress up in suits when going to watch a concert for classical music. Since he was given the opportunity to work on a stage play, he’d hoped for everyone to not go with the mindset of watching “Masuda Takahisa in a concert”, but to try to watch his role in the play. While he understands there were just very few people who behaved this way, but there were times when there were reactions completely irrelevant to the play, and also a buzz in the audience when they had scenes amongst the audience. It made him feel frustrated. That he wasn’t able to properly convey what the play wanted to, nor carry out his role properly. He wrote that entry with the hope that everyone would be able to appreciate those things. It might not have been right for him to write the entry since the majority of the audience were really great, and that there might have been people going to watch a play for the first time, he thought he’d just try to convey his thoughts.
- The third message was from a listener who referred to an episode on SCP when they said they’d try having all 4 of them stay together, as part of the new challenges to take on for their 15th anniversary. What’s the probability of this coming true? Also, what would he like to try doing if it materialised? Massu said that it seems the SCP staff are putting a lot of thought into turning this into a location shoot, but he’s no idea of what’s going to happen yet. Campfire with the 4 of them? Watching the campfire while drinking soup and talking passionately? It’d be best to have separate bedrooms and shower rooms, though they could eat together. Then… campfire. And… go home? Then nobody would be staying over hurhur. He said even something like a sharehouse would be tough, since he might find it difficult to go to the shared living room if someone else was already using it. In any case, they had meetings and it seems it might come true in the near future, so please look forward to it.
- The fourth listener was an overseas fan who went for their second concert ever at Ajinomoto Stadium. They wanted to know the English text that was written on the neon orange costumes as they couldn’t really figure out from the screen. He thanked the overseas fan and explained that the neon orange costumes were happis. And they had “NewS” that Johnny-san wrote for them at the time of debut printed all over, and lyrics from “NEWS Nippon” printed on the collars. Each member had different parts of the lyrics printed. There’d probably be other opportunities for him to explain more on the costumes, so please check those out again.
- The fifth mail was from someone who only became a fan from 4-member days, and was happy about getting to hear their older songs at the concert. Especially so for “Endless Summer”, as it was the song that brought them into the fandom. They’re looking forward to the 4-nin version that’s getting released with “Ikiro” and asked how they decide which songs to re-release each time. Massu said they take into consideration the period/ season the song was going to be released in. For “BLUE”, they re-recorded “NEWS Nippon” and “Stand Up” – the former because it was their 15th anniversary, the latter was something they all agreed upon pretty quickly. They always have meetings to decide which songs to do, and everyone would throw options out. “Stand Up” was decided upon pretty soon. Everyone probably had some idea on the timing to redo which songs, like “Which song is it that’s best for now”. Though of course their producer would also give suggestions on the song that suits them best at each point in time, but everyone pretty much decides on their own. They’d also like to release the 4-nin versions as maybe Disc 2 in their albums someday, so he’s glad the listener was looking forward to the song.
- The sixth listener was from someone who just got their first pair of glasses and would like Massu to name them. The lenses have got no power in them, are 100% UV cut and squarish round shaped. He first claimed this naming series is super popular and being paid lots of attention to within bayfm, before naming the glasses “Nobi” (野ビ).
- ♪ Summer Lover ♪
- For Brain Master this week, the question was on yakitori. What was the meat originally used in negima (chicken & leek skewers)? He made a few wrong guesses, including lame ones like “leek leek leek leek” and “leek air leek air leek”, before giving up. The answer was “tuna”. It originally came from a tuna and leek stew, and “negima” was short for leek (negi) and tuna (maguro). It is said that the skewered version begun to make this dish more affordable, and replacing tuna with chicken gave birth to the current “negima”. He said the meaning of “ma” might likely have taken a change in meaning, to mean “in between” (also pronounced as “ma” in Japanese), to mean leek skewered between chicken pieces.
- ♪ Easy Come, Easy Go ♪
- At the end, he promoted “Ikiro”.