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Kakizaki Memi (Memitan) / 1st Generation

Discussion in 'Hinatazaka46 Graduated Members' started by ForrestFuller, May 11, 2016.

  1. ukifune

    ukifune Under Girls

    Joined:
    Mar 29, 2016
    @YagiNako -- Hmm. Good suggestion (a direct interview). Lol. She says in this interview that she's pretty good at English.... Thanks. To help others feel closer to the group (as I improve my Japanese) is exactly why I do these translations.

    In any case, now I have translated the interview.

    What surprised me about Memi-chan in the interview was how athletic she is. Her times in the 50 yard dash (7.5 seconds) and her right-hand grip strength (34 kg) would have won both events at last fall's Kanji Keyaki athletic meet, beating out Akanen and Oda Nana, respectively. I had noticed that her hands seemed large. She's a strong, fast French doll.

    EDIT: In a comment on my blog, someone corrected me about her and Akanen's 50m times: Akanen's was 7.47 seconds, narrowly beating Memi's reported 7.5. The second-place finisher in the Nov 2015 K46 track meet was Kobayashi Yui, at 8.14sec.
     
    Last edited: Jan 15, 2017
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  2. jokoyamajui

    jokoyamajui Kenkyuusei

    Joined:
    Dec 24, 2014
    Oshimen:
    nagasawananako
    Yeah the omotenashikai was just soooooo good. Akimoto really hit it out of the park with Keyaki, I think. All the other groups seem a bit poor in comparison... anyway I, too, am waiting to see more of Hiragana, if only to see more Neru and Memi. Of course, I'd like to get to know the other members more as well. Keep up the good work spreading hiragana!
     
  3. ukifune

    ukifune Under Girls

    Joined:
    Mar 29, 2016
    I remember watching the Showroom auditions and feeling that certain candidates -- Memi, Kyonko, Katoshi, Mao -- were just so present. Memi just had the knack for looking through the camera at the audience and remaining totally natural. Katoshi felt so intimate sometimes that it was almost embarrassing. Mao was irresistibly (and sometimes resistibly) crazy. And Kyonko was somehow calculated and natural at the same time. I just couldn't help feeling drawn to her as a person. So I've been hoping that they could perform, to go along with their personal qualities. And it appears that they can.

    As for the omotenashikai, there was lots that was excellent, but the most remarkable thing, despite a little wandering off-key, was the chorus club. Who expected them to try something resembling a Little Glee Monster performance?
     
    Last edited: Dec 2, 2016
  4. CutePanda

    CutePanda Next Girls

    Joined:
    Apr 11, 2015
    :ome::ome:Happy Birthday Memi:ome::ome:
     
  5. ukifune

    ukifune Under Girls

    Joined:
    Mar 29, 2016
    Photo from Sasaki Mirei's (Mii-pon's) birthday blog post to Memi. The word beside the middle drawing is "Memi." The red word at the top is "Memii," which is one of her nicknames. She now seems to have accepted "Memi-tan" as her main nickname. At first she found the babyishness of it embarrassing. Now she even says she has a "baby face."

    sub-member-6496_jpg.jpg

    EDIT: Some Hiragana members have posted in their blogs without mentioning Memi's birthday. Of course, Memi has ignored some birthdays, herself. But Kobayashi Yui remembered Memi: "Today is Kakizaki Memi-chan's birthday! Memi-chan's twintails are so cute…♡ Happy Birthday!"

    EDIT2: Here's a translation of Memi's own 15th birthday blog post, just uploaded.

    EDIT3: And here's Kageyama Yuuka's blog post for Memi's birthday. Everybody seems to agree that Memi has a strong character, and is a hard, independent worker. In fact, she has called herself stubborn.
     
    Last edited: Dec 3, 2016
  6. ukifune

    ukifune Under Girls

    Joined:
    Mar 29, 2016
    Some new photos:

    Cy5lIGaVQAAyHph.jpg Cy5lJ8yUoAAWcnR.jpg e3ad701a.jpg e2372803.jpg
     
  7. ukifune

    ukifune Under Girls

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    Mar 29, 2016
  8. ukifune

    ukifune Under Girls

    Joined:
    Mar 29, 2016
    Saitou Kyouko's blog has a couple of pics of herself being carried by Memi:

    mob61l95F640.jpg

    You see, Memi is not your average frilly French doll. Those big calves help her run fast and support people on her back (Kyonko may be light, but anyway). She has better grip strength than anyone in Kanji Keyaki had at the physical testing last fall. And she's an S, according to Katoshi and Kumi. Lol.

    She recently said that she has been working on her dancing so as not to cause trouble for Neru. I noticed that at a point in DareTobe where she spins, in the MV she seemed to almost lose her balance, but in the K46 Show live performance she was solid.

    The pink heart there obscuring Sarina's and someone else's faces is, I think, put there by staff editors when they judge the photo unflattering.
     
    Last edited: Dec 12, 2016
  9. ukifune

    ukifune Under Girls

    Joined:
    Mar 29, 2016
    I guess I have to admit that, apart from Neru, she's my Hiragana oshi. (Can I have a Kanji oshi, a Hiragana oshi, and a K46 kami-oshi?) So I made a point of looking at her work in the FNS clip. Totally right on, as far as I could see. Not extravagant or flashy, but calm and at ease, and still with sharp movements. Maybe drifted a bit off-line at one point.

    Now looking forward to hearing about this weekend's mini-live (Nagoya handshake event) and to the Christmas show. Will she keep improving as she has been? I'm betting yes. From the time of her Showroom auditions, I could see her calm determination. And her lack of fakery. And other members have called her the most mature of the Hiraganas.
     
    Last edited: Dec 15, 2016
  10. ukifune

    ukifune Under Girls

    Joined:
    Mar 29, 2016
    Memi's blog post after the individual handshake event on Saturday.

    Neru-Memi, Hiragana Keyaki's double centre:

    Cz7UwETUcAAuDSE.jpg
     
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  11. Meiji Ishin

    Meiji Ishin Kenkyuusei

    Joined:
    Aug 18, 2016
    Oshimen:
    horimiona
    Compared to Neru you can really get an idea of how long her fingers are. She is almost like the living female version of Michelangelo's statue of David with her hand size compared to rest of her.
     
  12. ukifune

    ukifune Under Girls

    Joined:
    Mar 29, 2016
    Memi - Kumi - Kage from Overture magazine #9 2016/12/23. Click for full size.

    C0RqxBQUAAAeuTg.jpg

    Some actual style. Memi the closest to a French doll (of a kind) she has yet come. Kumi in something that suits her image, if not her personality. And Kage having kicked soccer to the curb. From Twitter. The person who posted it says they saw that the mag (which features Momoiro CloverZ on the cover) didn't have Hirate or Neru, so wasn't going to buy it. Now they say they will buy anything with Hirate, Neru...or Memi in it.
     
  13. MasToppu

    MasToppu Next Girls

    Joined:
    Jun 29, 2016
    Location:
    Nusantara
    Oshimen:
    Kosaka Nao
    I read her blog post today, and it was great. Lot of great photos, with nice information for each of them. She praised Mona as Ikemen, Aka's beauty, Tecchi that suddenly hugged from the back and how she can become closer to other member. I think she has became the real Keya's French Doll, if we see how other member pampered her like that. :blush: And that was definetely her best Christmas gift! :lol:
     
  14. ukifune

    ukifune Under Girls

    Joined:
    Mar 29, 2016
    Yes. Fantastic photos in Memi's latest post. She said in her previous post she would tell us in this post about her wonderful Christmas gift this year. The photos show what it was (click thumbnails to enlarge).

    IMG_1954.JPG IMG_1955.JPG IMG_1953.JPG IMG_1956.JPG

    She said she had fallen in love with "Shida-San," that "Moriya-San" was so beautiful close-up, and that "Hirate-San," of all people, came up and hugged her while she was eating the catered food backstage. She said that when Hirate-San hugged her, her jaw started to shake and chatter, something she has said happens to her sometimes when she gets too excited or too nervous.

    And here's one photo from her previous post, "Important feelings," in which she said she was full of gratitude for Hiragana Keyaki being able to take part in Keyakizaka46's solo live, and thanked in particular the fans, whose support made it possible, she said.

    IMG_1957.JPG

    Perhaps she can be the linchpin around which Kanji and Hiragana can unite. Or one of two, with Neru. As with Neru, everyone seems to love her. In this photo she has some of the elegance of a French doll, all right, or perhaps of a young queen. The members of Hiragana keep repeating how adult she seems to them, and how unflappable.

    In the solo live, in the talk portion before the three singles, she was asked what Christmas present she had ever liked a lot, and said that when she was little she got a doll she loved. What they were all laughing about was that she went on to say that she played with it (or maybe it was another doll) too close to a stove and it melted. Not very adult or regal, lol.

    EDIT: Here's a still from a little video where she's asked to make certain faces. This one is Godzilla attacking the camera.

    IMG_1965.JPG
     
    Last edited: Dec 31, 2016
  15. ukifune

    ukifune Under Girls

    Joined:
    Mar 29, 2016
    Here's the full little video from which that last photo was taken. Along with Kage-chan and Takase Mana, she was asked a number of questions to react to in five seconds. I'll list her answers after the video:


    if the video does not show watch the video here

    1. Your personality? "My pace." (relaxed and quirky)
    2. Latest big news? "Bought some paper dolls."
    3. If you were a very handsome guy, what could you do? (She couldn't think of anything within five seconds. At the end she says: "What can a handsome guy do...? Get a cute girlfriend.")
    4. Special skill? "Short-distance running."
    5. Favorite noodle/bread-type food. "Pasta."
    6. Hiragana Keyaki... "Hypnotism. Iguchi Mao-chan's hypnotism."
    7. How you curse at yourself. "Idiot!"
    8. Most stylish member. "Katou Shiho."
    9. Something that happened that you will never forget. "When I shouted 'Please stop!'"
    10. The part of your face that you like. "My eyes."
    11. A secret lie you told. "That I have a younger brother."
    12. What you're lacking. "Imagination."
    13. How many strokes in the characters for your name: "Sixteen." (The original list says this is wrong, but in fact it is right, for her given name. If you add her surname, it's 36, but they didn't specify when they asked her.)
    14. If a kitten followed you home. "I'd put it in a cardboard box."
    15. If you found you'd forgotten your money when you went to the convenience store. "I'd say I wanted to use the restroom."
    16. If you were down and someone wanted to cheer you up. "Give me sweets."
     
  16. ukifune

    ukifune Under Girls

    Joined:
    Mar 29, 2016
    I've caught up with Memi's past few blog posts, starting with one she wrote on Christmas Eve, after the first of the one-man live performances, and going through four more, including the one with the photos of Mona, Akanen and Hirate getting up close and personal with her, and ending with one she published Wednesday, about a road trip this week with her family. If you like, please take a look at them. I may continue, since her posts are not too long and not too frequent, but in any case, I thought these were interesting.
    1. Christmas one-man lives
    2. Gratitude and determination
    3. Christmas present (Mona, Akanen, Techi)
    4. Happy New Year! (looking back at the year)
    5. New Year's holiday (family road trip)
     
  17. ukifune

    ukifune Under Girls

    Joined:
    Mar 29, 2016
    My thought of translating all of Memi's blog posts dropped by the wayside early. Yesterday's post was about TV comedy shows she likes. I didn't know any of them.

    But today's post is about what she wants to do in the coming year. Here's a translation.

    mob5spXlJs.jpg sub-member-7090_01_jpgFLIPs.jpg
     
  18. ukifune

    ukifune Under Girls

    Joined:
    Mar 29, 2016
    Memi blog post about Friday the 13th (the day and the movie). She loves the movie and wants to watch it again every time a Friday the 13th comes round (as it did yesterday). Here are the two photos from the post:

    mobarcrVm.jpg mobqTE1Wc.jpg
     
  19. gocchisama

    gocchisama Member Stage48 Donor

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    Oct 12, 2012
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    Paris,France
    Oshimen:
    hirateyurina
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    Gocchisama
    wait a minute, she's faster than akanen?
     
  20. ukifune

    ukifune Under Girls

    Joined:
    Mar 29, 2016
    Not quite. I was corrected there in a comment on my blog: Akanen's 50m time (in the fall 2015 KeyaKake meet) was 7.47 secs. Memi's (self-reported from school testing) was 7.5 secs. In any case, that puts her a close second to Akane, and ahead of KobaYui, who was next at 8.14s. Memi reported she was the second-fastest runner in her middle school, and said that although she was in the art club, the track and field club drafted her for the school team in the relay.

    Like most of the Hiraganas have recently said, I'd like to see an on-air Hiragana track meet to verify her time -- and Neru's, lol. Neru also seemed fast, on a more recent KeyaKake track meet..

    Memi's school-testing 34kg grip strength was also higher than any in the Nov 2015 K46 track meet. When you see her big hands, you can at least understand that. But a stronger grip than Manaka (24.9kg) or Oda Nana (30.7, K46 #1)?
     
    Last edited: Jan 15, 2017

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