MatsuJun on Tokyo Concierge - 2006 07 02

Jun was a guest on a radio show called Tokyo Concierge recently, and I've translated the summary of it ^^ I know I don't normally post summaries of radio shows, but I thought this was interesting and definitely worth sharing with everyone. He talked more about his Valkyrie stageplay, ARASHIC, the group itself and even (or should I say especially?) fanservice. Enjoy!

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- The show is hosted by Bessho Tetsuya and Mochizuki Rie. Since Bessho is also an actor, Jun had seen a stageplay that he was in awhile ago, so they did have some kind of contact of sorts. While talking about that, they got around to talking about Jun's own recent stageplay, Byakuya no Onna Kishi.

- The stageplay was directed by Ninagawa Yukio, who is very strict and has high demands towards plays. Although many directors don't have very high expectations towards Johnny's actors in general, nor do they give much criticism or advice, Ninagawa was completely different. He would mercilessly yell at Jun, saying he "has no talent" or his "aspirations fall short".

- There are scenes with wire-flying stunts in the stageplay. Johnny's actually has a set method to wire-flying, which is done according to what looks best under those conditions, so Jun would usually use that method in performances. But when he used it this time, he got yelled at pretty badly by Ninagawa, and it was also right in front of a group of reporters too. But it was also because of this kind of thing that gave Jun many chances to reconsider many different aspects of acting, so this stageplay was a very valuable experience to him.

- Next they talked about ARASHIC, their new album. Because their previous album (ONE) had solo songs by each member, and they had lots of individual activities this year, they wanted to get across the feeling of "Arashi" as a group this time. That was the reason why this entire album was sung by all five members. Jun's favourite song on the album is COOL & SOUL, and joked that he liked it to the point of putting the song name into the name of their concert tour.

- Bessho was very surprised that all of the details from their tour this year was thought up by themselves. Jun said that the entire thing was up to the five of them to organize and think up, and they didn't have any one who specialized in concert arrangements to help them out. Of course, professionals were still required for things such as lighting, special effects, and dance choreography, but most importantly the general content as a whole all originated from them.

- And because they didn't spend a lot of time together this year, they really wanted to convey the feeling of five people as one in the concert tour as well. Jun thinks that gathering together after such a long time, the atmosphere within the group is a bit different than before, like they could try adding new things into their concerts, so this time around they've tried experimenting with many things.

- The hosts asked Jun what kind of job he'd like to try most, and he replied that it would be acting. This is because he's not very good at conveying the real him, and often gets mistaken for having a bad attitude or being impolite. But acting is to perform in the role of other people and express their personalities, so he really likes it.

- Lastly, they talked about Arashi. Jun feels that getting so many great chances as a result of staying in Johnny's is a very happy thing. And Arashi's members aren't family nor friends, yet to be able to have such closeness... it feels very disgusting. XD He also added that the five of them really like skin-to-skin contact. To be honest, the members don't truly like the whole guys touching other guys thing, but if touching each other gets fans excited, then they would happily cooperate, and every so often even toss in a little kiss XD That's why during concerts, they would touch one another when the fans are least expecting.

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So what did everybody think? I personally think it's great that he admits to blatant fanservice to please fans. We all know it's a given that Johnny's guys do it, but to actually own up to it is a pretty brave thing to do.

...not that fans would really care, of course. XD