The article translation thread

Thank you so much. This interview wad more interesting than any of the previous ones packed together. I guess when it's about newer girls, and get to learn so many things about them all at once, like the confirmation about Emily's mother, the fact that Nako came from Tokyo also makes her even more interesting as a center and future ace, it'll be do much easier for her to be part of AKB activities. Hoka could've been 1st gen as well, shame but I'm glad she's here.

3rd gen is overall a lot more interesting than 2nd, maybe it's because they're a total of 9 so it's much easier to get to know them deeply but I'm already hooked on more girls from 3rd than from 2nd.

 

Thank you very much DP! That was an really interesting read .
I did know that Misaki failed 2nd gen auditions (obviously...), but that Hazuki already auditioned for the first gen.. wow. I wonder about the real reason, she didn't do so for 2nd auditions [wonder]

 

Thanks a lot for the translation DP!! [party]

So apparently our tiny center has a serious plan going on for her career and her family full support of it

 

DP Thanks for the translation ! [clap]
really happy to know that mikurin is also admire meru and natsu and nako has been destined to join this group , her age and stature won't fit in any other group , good decision she has made .

 

She said she needed time to get self-confidence before trying again

You are being quite hasty with this statement. You are not watching HKT no odekake?

Thanks Dreamy for the translation. It was really interesting knowing the reason why third gen joined HKT.
"because they admired and liked AKB a lot". The 48group is definitively a source of joy and Hope.

What's make me happy is that a lot of girls feels the same way as us when seeing a stage performance. I mean, in France if you say to your entourage you are attending young girls dancing and singing because they make you smile and give you courage, you look like a fool or even a pervert.

But those very young girls have attended HKT performance for the same reason as me, and they even auditioned. I feel at peace with my feelings. (I almost accepted the fact that my inner self was attracted by young girls....glups)

 

Thank you, I read that. That's why I wrote "real reason".

 

what make you think it isn't the real reason? Going to such fierce and competitive environnement, i'm not surprised if she gave herself some time to decide if she's feel capable or not to be in HKT.

I'm not sure if Yabuki Nao had this kind of thought entering HKT48(personally i don't think so), but Hokazono is 16-17 if i recall correctly, and thus said she is old enough to think in such a mature way.

I mean, commiting into the idol world is not an easy decision. Or it should be. I think this kind of thought is linked with something quite troublesome in AKB group in general : Graduation of young gen. it's even more of a problem when management put some push on members. I feel like new gen doesn't have the same resolve as the old gen. But i hope to be wrong with those newly pushed KKS.

I think this is by far the most critical time for AKB group to have determined member, who want to grow and develop in long term.

 

Because I personally think, that it's the most generic way to explain why she didn't also enter 2nd audition without having to reveal anything of her private life.
This is idol business, I don't believe that even 20% of what the girls say is really true. Which isn't really a problem, as long as one remembers, that this is just a created dreamworld to get our money.
I'm okay with that as long as it's fun for me. It's not like I really want to hang out with those girls in real life anyway .

Well.. hanging out with Sasshi or Mariko would be awesome, but not gonna happen.

 

The purpose of management is to make money from our pocket indeed. Money overflowing from handshake events is like the best idea ever just behind the sousenkyo.

But maybe we should be less "disillusioned" toward the girls. It's true they are under great influence of the management. But i also believe some of their speech are genuine. Their feelings posted on G+, some are candid, other are thoughtful...but to think most of them are only for fan purpose? It hurts to think that way. It may be true, but at the same time i want to believe they speak their mind as selfless act.

I don't know the girl personally, but when Tashima Meru or Kodama Haruka tells me she wants to be an idol to make people smile by their singing, well i tend to believe it. Also, the mere sparkle of thought assuming the same girls i love are performing for "money" is unbearable.

There's a word describing "great" quote (i think it's manzai-something but i'm not sure) maybe the greatest of all is from Acchan :

This is the kind of statement that, even if you wanted too, can't be pulled through thinking. It just came from the heart. And nothing can interfere between what Acchan said to AKB fans, not even management.

Maybe what i said was confusing and i apologize, but to sum it up, even though we should be realistic with the reason why AKB exist, we should have faith in the girls we support and put the suspicious thought away from what is supposed to be genuine.

 

I didn't say everything is an act, some surely might enjoy every handshake event, I just don't believe that this hard work is always something they really enjoy.
Like you said, we will never know and I really don't care as long as they keep up the act and keep me interested.

But, for example, there was a certain girl at some other Idolband, who said after her Idoltime, that she was grossed out by all her male fans and never really enjoyed meeting them.
Im sure many girls think like that, but as long as they dont say it out loud.. why should I really care. Take my money, make me be happy. I'm totally okay with that.

Sorry that the thread went into a different direction!

 

Well, that's definitively NOT an idol i'm going to support at all. If we can call her an idol, that is. My conception of an idol is "a minima" a relationship of respect.

On the other hand, if i had a two shots with Haruppi, i would train hardcore to get a decent Appearance. Coming in T - shirts and basket is a No no. Even she is grossed by me, at least i tried to get better

Sigh, i still want to be a naive fan and believe that Haruppi would be happy that i travelled the whole world to see her for 10 seconds. Just a little bit.

Funny fact : i think i read it somewhere (Cristafari 48experience i think) that Russian fans appeared in Tuxedo in Murashige line. Nice example of how you should present yourself for an exceptionnal meeting

 

lol well...i don't really get how someone can even say that 3rd gen is more interesting than 2nd gen based off of little details. but whatever. :roll:

anyway thanks for the translation!
i think it's quite adorable that tsutsui admires her senpais iichan & okapan.

 

^more interesting, as in they appeal to me and I'm actually bothered. Maybe it's just me but I think after watching hours worth of their debut LODs, you're bound to know by now if you want to keep following them in the future or not. I never felt that way about 2nd gen when they were at the same point.

 

Another translation below. If you have any corrections or suggestions to make the text better, please let me know.

SOURCE: ENTAME
DATE: November, 2013 (Cover Date: January 2014)
MEMBERS: Matsuoka Natsumi, Nakanishi Chiyori, Tashima Meru, Yamada Marina

Spoiler

HKT48 Improvement Commission - Vol. 12



We bring you this ongoing series with the motto "Let's make more people learn about HKT!". This month, 2nd Gen Yamada Marina, also known as Mariri, teaches members about calligraphy. Let's experience the world of writing, where you can express your personality with the power of a brush.

Let's learn to write beautiful characters and express the beauty within our personalities

This month's students:

Tashima Meru (Meru): With a personality that supports HKT48, she appears on the blogs of many members. She has community strength, but is bad at calligraphy. Her name is cute, but isn't the large amount of strokes a disadvantage?

Nakanishi Chiyori (Chori): With her comedian-like variety strength, Chori once more displayed that talking skill that brightens up HKT48. Also, did she become interested in calligraphy as a reaction to today's results?

Matsuoka Natsumi (Natsu): Natsu's beauty has been increasing more and more. You'd think she'd have a pretty handwriting, but this was quite a hard fight for her. Maybe the reason was her behavior during penmanship classes in school?

This month's teacher:

Yamada Marina: She studied calligraphy from the 1st year of primary school until the summer of her 3rd high school year. She was taking a break after joining HKT48, but recently she resumed her practice while aiming to achieve a higher degree. She's a bona fide calligrapher. She has a middle grade instructor certificate, for which you can apply after passing the second adult grade.

---------------------

A gentle beginning, getting slowly thicker, and a vigorous turn upward!

This time the members will try doing calligraphy for us. Mariri, you have a nice license!

YAMADA: It's the "Middle Grade Instructor Certificate". I can teach students up to middle school. But I want to aim much higher. I want to be able to teach adults as well.

In that case, everyone please turn over what you wrote to the sensei.

NAKANISHI: It's been some years since I last wrote, but didn't I get a great result?

YAMADA: Yes, you're good. I was surprised.

NAKANISHI: (with a wide smile) Really?

Well, the next is Tashima.

TASHIMA: I'm bad at writing, but I wrote it as best as I could!

MATSUOKA: It's the word "energetic", right?

NAKANISHI: But looking at her handwriting, I feel like asking if she is really energetic. (laughs)

Is there a time to practice penmanship at your classes at school now?

MATSUOKA: The image of "calligraphy" is that it's a time when you can talk. I was always talking to my friends.

NAKANISHI: Whaaaat?!

MATSUOKA: Isn't it so?

NAKANISHI: It's time to pay attention.

YAMADA: That is right.

NAKANISHI: Well, only Natsu does that.

(laughs) Now let's get the first assignment word, "mentaiko", corrected.

MATSUOKA: Let's start with Chori, who seems so confidant.

NAKANISHI: Here it is! Great!!

YAMADA: I wasn't expecting much (laughs), so it's good.

NAKANISHI: Hahahahaha!!

YAMADA: It is well balanced. But the entrance of the characters isn't quite good. Because it's a gentle entrance, or rather the ink is spread over. But the sweeping stroke of the 太 character is very good. The space for the 子 character turned out small, so in terms of balance it isn't quite good. It's the hard part of the three characters. But her name is well-written too. It's good.

NAKANISHI: Yes! (claps hands) Now, write "good" there!

YAMADA: (laughs) Good!

Next is Tashima's correction.

YAMADA: As for Meru... First it's thin, isn't it? Also, she managed to do the sweeping stroke, but there should be a stop. And this should slant here, and like this, and this...

NAKANISHI: Half of the 明 character is gone. (laughs)

YAMADA: Also the grouping. When you write shortly it becomes thin.

Tashima's name looks difficult too.

TASHIMA: Yes, I'm bad at doing it.

NAKANISHI: And now for Natsu!

YAMADA: I felt that Natsu-san would be good at it.

MATSUOKA: I'm bad at studying and sports, but others say I look like I'm good at handwriting.

YAMADA: You look like a woman with both beauty and intelligence.

NAKANISHI: I see. Because people also say that I look like I can run fast, but actually I can't.

MATSUOKA: Nice story.

NAKANISHI: Sorry.

YAMADA: But it feels original. Like Picasso? It's the most well-balanced of the three.

MATSUOKA: Picasso, yes! It's positive thinking. (laughs)

YAMADA: And yet, each individual character is not well balanced. (laughs) The sweeping on the third stroke of the 太 character should get slowly thicker, and the entrance of the 子 character should be round.

For the second assignment, we asked each girl to write characters that represent themselves. Please tell us more about it.

(NOTE: You can see what each girl wrote in the pictures on the top of the second page. Chori wrote "lip", Natsu wrote "tsundere" and Meru wrote "energetic" or "live". Mariri wrote "bangs", because she said the kanji for hair (髪) was the first one she practiced writing.)

NAKANISHI: It's obviously a charm point of mine. From the many that I have, I chose my lips. Everyone often say "I want to kiss your lips"...

MATSUOKA: I've never heard that!

NAKANISHI: Well, Natsu, what do you think of my lips?

MATSUOKA: Honestly?

NAKANISHI: Honestly. But not to the point of hurting my feelings. (laughs)

MATSUOKA: Use just your face for jokes (??).

Ok, let's go to the next one.

YAMADA: It's nice that it's only one character and she wrote it big. And her name is good. (laughs)

NAKANISHI: Fuuuu! Yay!

Let's go to Tashima next.

YAMADA: It's thin and angular. On the 元 and 気 characters, for the upward turn at the end, you begin gently, make it gradually thicker, and... upward turn!

NAKANISHI: Ooohh!

MATSUOKA: Cool!

YAMADA: This way it looks stylish, right? The vertical breaking down of the 気 character isn't quite good either.

NAKANISHI: (looking at the teacher's red marks) I can already feel the energy!

That's right. That is the energy that you wanted to put into it, right?

TASHIMA: Yes, that's right!

NAKANISHI: Now it's Natsu's turn! She's confident about this one!

MATSUOKA: My spirit is "tsun". It's maybe 7:3 or 8:2.

NOTE: Natsu is referring to the ratio between her "tsuntsun" (sour, blunt) personality and her "deredere" (relaxed, sociable) personality. The word "tsundere" is a portmanteau of these two words.

YAMADA: We can see that here. (laughs) But please try to do the stops and the upward turns properly right? You managed to write the ン character well.

MATSUOKA: But the first one was round!

YAMADA: But your name... No, I won't touch on it here!!

MATSUOKA: Aaaahhh (laughs)

NOTE: About the text on the top of the second page: These are Mariri's comments about each girls' handwriting. It's sort of technical and would only be interesting to people who enjoy Japanese calligraphy, so I chose not to translate it. The important thing is that, in the first assignment, Chori won the gold medal, Meru won the silver medal and Natsu won the bronze medal. In the second assignment, Chori won gold again, then Natsu won silver and Meru won bronze. The box on the bottom right is just a little note about the debut of the 3rd Gen and doesn't contain anything we don't already know.)

 

IXA asked me to translate the article below. If you find any translations errors, please let me know.

It should be noted that, although the text on the website makes it sound like this is just a short segment of a longer interview, I bought the iPad version of this magazine and realized (after spending my hard-earned money) that this is all there is.

SOURCE: Weekly ASCII
DATE: December 2013
MEMBERS: Kodama Haruka, Matsuoka Natsumi
ORIGINAL TEXT: http://weekly.ascii.jp/elem/000/000/191/191648/

Spoiler

This week's edition includes a booklet, with Kodama Haruka and Matsuoka Natsumi from HKT gracing the cover. If you don't know them, make sure to buy this magazine.

Nervous about the first solo tour!

On January 11th, 2014, you will start a tour through the seven Kyushu prefectures. Haven't you visited these seven prefectures before?

KODAMA: We have visited them as part of many larger events, but this will be the first time on a solo tour.

You will do many fun things, won't you?

KODAMA: Kyushu has some delicious food, so I want to go out to eat with everyone.

MATSUOKA: But going through 3 prefectures in 3 days, doing 2 performances, there'll be no time to go out and eat.

KODAMA: That's right... We can't go at the end when we're exhausted right? And there's also the traveling.

MATSUOKA: You're more worried now about the food than the tour. (laughs)

KODAMA: (laughs) No, I'm nervous because it will be the first time we'll be traveling the 48 of us together.

MATSUOKA: I'm looking forward to that feeling of achievement we'll get at the last performance in Fukuoka, after building it all only by ourselves.

Are there more people aware of you in your hometown than in Tokyo now?

MATSUOKA: Our scope is small compared to other regions, but I want us to catch the fans' hearts in this tour, grow more, become the idol group that represents Kyushu and then start our attack towards the east!

 

This was quietly posted in the gallery, but it's too awesome not to be noticed. Sakura interviews the "Imomu Chu!" girls (aka the Daijoubu Senbatsu).

SOURCE: Gekkan AKB48 Group Shinbun
DATE: December 2013
MEMBERS: Goto Izumi, Komada Hiroka, Miyawaki Sakura, Sakaguchi Riko, Tani Marika, Tomiyoshi Asuka

Spoiler

Note: Miyawaki Sakura is the interviewer and author of the text, which is why her name doesn't appear below.

"Imomu Chu!" is an unofficial unit formed by HKT48 kenkyuuseis. The five members are Sakaguchi Riko, Tomiyoshi Asuka, Komada Hiroka, Goto Izumi, and Tani Marika! Their first single (planned), "Daijoubi. Bokutachi ni tsuite koi" has in part become a hot topic!

Following from last week, we bring you an interview with the Imomu Chuu! members!

Does Imomu Chu! have other songs besides "Daijoubu"?

GOTO: Our second single (planned) "Doubi Douba" is our newest song, which we are performing now.

TOMIYOSHI: "Doubi Douba" has a 1980's taste and feels like a disco song. We've made it a song that everyone can dance to.

GOTO: Our intention is that many members dance to it and many people upload different versions, like the "Koi Suru Fortune Cookie" MV.

TANI: My catchphrase in Imoumu Chu! is "You too! You too! In everyone's heart, Tani Marika bloom!".

I think I've heard that catchphrase somewhere... To close up, please leave a message for the fans.

TOMIYOSHI: The MVs are uploaded to my Google+, so please follow me!

KOMADA: No, follow my Google+ too!

SAKAGUCHI: My Google+ has the lowest number of comments, so please help me.

TOMIYOSHI: Imoumu Chuu! is funny and fun and is developing gradually, but the fact that we're not well-known is our weak point.

SAKAGUCHI: As a consequence, [the songs] last as long as a game between middle school boys! Just like that!!

GOTO: Please write "I love Imoumu Chu!". Without fail!



This was our fact-checking and machine gun talk with the Imoumu Chu! members! I'm also looking forward to their interaction with their unofficial rivals, the "Guigui Senbatsu".

Everyone, please support Imou Chu!

 

。。。　


There is only one true bloom, and that's Sakura's! ></
さくら咲け！


I love the Daijoubu song and the performance btw
https://plus.google.com/108233787438424 ... EViys14rih

 

Yay!
Thanks a lot for this translation DreamingPebbles!

I really hope that Imomu Chu! becomes a thing [party]

 

OMG I was laughing so much while reading this Daijoubu Senbatsu interview haha
This whole article is pure trolling

I can totally picture Asuka's and Iichan's serious face while answering the questions lol

And the name... "Imoumu Chu!" ^^ I still remember Mio's reaction when they announced their "official" name on stage she was like "Wait.. what?! That's my group's name!" haha

Looking forward to their future activities!! ^.^

 

is it possible to translate this?