And Speaking of Tiny Morimotos

[mousapelli]

Yamada, Yuto, and Ryutarou singing Take Me Higher

Apologies for the LQ, that's how they turn up on my flist, and is anybody uploading decent quality of either HS show lives? There's a couple now that I'd like to actually, you know, SEE. But only these little ones seem to turn up.

At any rate, I know we were just talking about this yesterday, but who on earth let Ryutarou get so tall and low-voiced?! O__________o Forget when he's 20, he's a lot of trouble RIGHT NOW.

I think they are letting Yamada baby-sit him. JE IF YOU ARE READING THIS, STOP THAT.

Comments

[uminohikari.livejournal.com]

..Is that seriously Ryutarou? I thought he was supposed to be one of the little ones. ._.

[mousapelli.livejournal.com]

like last week, he totally was. He's THIRTEEN. WHAT.

lol, retarded typo. his brother is eleven.

[fireatwill.livejournal.com]

Whoa. Uhm, whut? He's how old, again?

[mousapelli.livejournal.com]

THIRTEEN. ASKDFSDFJKA.

[kegom.livejournal.com]

What the hell is JE feeding HSJ these days? Growth hormones?

It's kind of strange to compare one-year-post-debut Arashi to (nearly-)one-year-post-debut HSJ, because Arashi were babies, all breaking voices and pimples and gangliness and awkward silences, while HSJ are ...not.

[mousapelli.livejournal.com]

they do get tall these days, don't they. The senpai all look TINY.

HSJ has a ton of really strong individuals in it, it's crazy. i guess some of them have been in je so long though...

[kegom.livejournal.com]

It's not only that they're tall, they're also ...generally more physically mature than some of their sempais were when debuting?

Nagase was pretty mature, physically, when he debuted, despite only being fifteen, but if the photos I've seen of them are anything to go by, the younger half of V6 (between 14 and 16 when they debuted) were kind of baby-ish, too. I have no idea about Kinki Kids, but Arashi as the last nineties group... yeah. Babies, all of them, except maybe Sho.



I think JE must have started giving the juniors courses about how to behave self-assured in front of a camera, or something. Of course, some of them have been in JE (and on screen) for ages, which definitely accounts for things like them being able to jump in when one of the members struggles during an interview, but from what I've seen of them, they appear so sure of themselves in front of a camera, that I can't quite imagine that it's only the experience in show-business (especially since some of their more baby-ish senpai had that too).

[mousapelli.livejournal.com]

they definitely are. I'm not sure whether JE has just learned to pick them better, or it's that all of Japan is getting taller because of nutritional changes, or maybe JE is so popular these days that they have more trainees to pick from, or what, I'm really not sure.

But in terms of how they carry themselves on camera, i think giving them some training on it is a very good idea, and I'd hope they at least did practice interviews. I think it also helps that various HSJ members were good friends before debut, like Yuto and Yamada, or all of the original 7 had gotten close, Yabu and Hikaru had run the Y3 show and been mini-hosts of Shokura for so long, but at any rate, they aren't awkward with each other. They're friends. So I think they cover for each other much more naturally than, say Arashi or NEWS did at first, when they really are just all thrown together.

[kegom.livejournal.com]

I could imagine the fact that JE has a lot more trainees to pick from is a reason, though the late nineties have been generally called "the golden age of juniors", I believe, because there were just so many boys who applied. Part of it might also be that Julie, as the one who picks most of the groups nowadays, picks the juniors for different qualities than her uncle did. (Though I have no idea what those qualities might be.) I don't know, I can't really see one obvious reason. ^^"


Yes, interview training is definitely a very good idea! ^-^ And I'm pretty sure they did practice.
With the HSJ members being good friends before debut, though, I'm not sure how much of a factor that was, really. Pairs of really good friends like Yuto and Yamada definitely help, yes, but half of Arashi were in MAIN together before their debut, and even before that junior group, Aiba and Jun at least often got paired up, while Nino was friends with Sho from before; and NEWS had Ryo and Uchi who were close friends and Koyama, Shige and Kusano from KKKity, who were also close; and despite that, those groups didn't know how to cover for each other in interviews and stuff at the beginning.

In some of the older Arashi interviews, I get the feeling that the reason why they don't interrupt is actually that they don't dare to, because the question was not directed at them; and I guess an interview training might help with issues like that.

Of course it might have also been slightly influenced by a change in JE hierarchy policies - didn't the thing where they all were allowed to call each other -kun, no matter how old the other person was, get introduced somewhere in the last few years? Maybe it also changed the way the younger JE guys see themselves in relation to others in the show-business?

[fenlings]

Just jumping in here, but the custom of calling senpai -kun has been around since at least 1995, because I saw Kinki talking about it in an interview. But it is interesting to speculate when that started, because listening to Shounentai and Matchy and them, senpai-kohai status seemed to be more strict in the old days, and also based more on debut time (and failing that, jimusho-entering time) rather than age.

I think more than anything, it's probably talk show/variety show experience that helps them be sure in front of the camera. Along with natural talent and off-screen cameraderie. Because I agree that HSJ are doing much better than Arashi and NEWS overall in the beginning. This discussion kind of makes me want to check out early V6, because JFriends all got really friendly with each other and good in front of a camera later on, and of course Kinki way pre-debut were interview-amazing, but I'd like to see some eeeeaaaarly V6 and Tokio. Even though it will be painful, I'm sure.

[kegom.livejournal.com]

Oh, so long already? I always got the impression, from what Arashi said about their pre-debut time, that senpai-kohai rules were still pretty strict back then. Like, when the younger three talk about the time they got into Johnny's, they always mention that Ohno was already a senpai to them and the implication seems to be that his senpai status was one reason they didn't really get to know him all that closely, even though they of course knew him.

And then there's the "No Borders" business - that was post-2000, wasn't it? That seems to have been the younger generation's attempt to forego hierarchy, so there seems to have been some hierarchy still left back then.

Early V6 would be really interesting, I think, just like early TOKIO, because both of them had a much wider age-span than the newer groups. There were/are about ten years between Sakamoto and Okada, and about nine years between Joshima and Nagase, and about half of both V6 and TOKIO were over twenty when they debuted so they might have been less awkward because of that.

(Though I wouldn't complain if they had been awkward. ;D Somehow, I find the way Arashi at least were so honestly awkward at the beginning very endearing, more endearing even than the smooth way the younger boys handle interviews. ^-^)

[fenlings]

Haha, yeah Arashi were adorable that way, if somewhat painful to watch!

Coincidentally, I'm watching Mabo's Oshareism, where he talks about drinking with Sakamoto and Aiba and Nino, and how Leader used to get angry at him for bad senpai/kohai manners. One time when he was 13, he talked to Sakamoto like, "But Sakamoto-kun is ~~, right?" and when he got back to the hotel room, Yamaguchi yelled at him a lot for talking like that to such a big senpai. So somewhere between 1990 and now it's changed somewhat, although you notice all the boys younger than Kinki still call Nakai "Nakai-san."

Yeah, No Border is a really interesting effort, and I like it a lot. Of course nowadays, things are all topsyturvy with groups staying around forever, juniors getting older than debuted people, etc, so I really like the way age is kind of taking precedence over debut time or even length of junior employment.

Oh, good point about the age difference. I like that theory. Hah, I remember when Arashi was on SDK there had apparently been talk of dividing them into "mountain" and "wind" groups. I'm sooo glad they didn't.

[kegom.livejournal.com]

Oh wow, Leader actually got really angry at Mabo? The way they often interact today, you wouldn't believe it! XD (I can totally imagine Gussan shouting at the younger guys, though. He seems like the guy who'd lead the younger ones with a firm hand. ^-^)

although you notice all the boys younger than Kinki still call Nakai "Nakai-san."

Except Ohno, who'll call him Nakai-chan. XDD


You're right, I hadn't thought about it, but it's really good that age is starting to be a more important factor than debut/non-debut, because I think it would rankle with a lot of the older juniors - MA, for example - if they had to respect the HSJ kids as "senpai", just because they got debuted.


Yes, the "mountain" and "wind" groups! XD That cracked me the hell up, because really, if they did that, they could just go ahead and call them by their real name - "Do-M group" and "Do-S group". Because that's what those groups would be about, really. XD (And it's not as if Arashi's not great at making up their own subgroups, what with the ever-lasting Ohmiya SK and the newly founded "Curiosity Team". XD)

[chiharu.livejournal.com]

Ryutaro's voice has always sounded like this. Even when he was like, 12. Chinen's voice is the one we need to watch out for D:

[tsubasa-lupin.livejournal.com]

JE is totally feeding the boys with drugs/hormones xD

[karerou.livejournal.com]

OhMyGod

*blink blink*

At first i tot tht was Yuto... >-

[konbini.livejournal.com]

You're not looking in the right places. XD Kami-chan (http://www.heysayheisei.com) has most, if not all, Live Stages, you just have to dig. I know that there are some on HappyTown too, but they're in .vob and take up 100+ MB. I'm talking about just the Live Stages here. >>

And Johnny isn't letting Yamada babysit Ryutaro, Ryutaro babysits Yamada. You know, just to make sure that Yamada doesn't get it on with Yuto in between breaks. Which they always end up doing anyway. /ninja