H - Arashi Now and Forever - Nino Interview (1/?)

[barbosa2007]

H magazine sits down with the members of Arashi to discuss their thoughts about their 10th year anniversary.

 

Armed with a keen sensitivity and spontaneity, he’s able to make accurately a witty comeback on each member’s words. The variety chief who ascertains who to hand the conversation over to in order to achieve the best effect – Ninomiya Kazunari. Although he became a world class actor after filming “Letters from Iwojima”, he firmly maintains his stance that he is an idol. Immense potential, flat objectivity, humour and even wickedness are weaved together to form his manner of speech. We think that when this became known to the public, it had a role in demolishing preconceived notions of people who were prejudiced towards idols. Ninomiya speaks of broadening the definition of what an idol is. To Ninomiya, who constantly does things for the sake of Arashi and keeps the other members in his thoughts, we asked for his opinion on Arashi’s status quo.

 

Personally, what do you think has been your greatest achievement in the past ten years?

It was our debut, wasn’t it? It changed all our lives! (laughs)

That’s also because although you wanted to study stage plays, you were suddenly thrown into Arashi.

It was shocking. (laughs) However, even as I was complaining, I did my job properly. That’s because I’m serious when it comes to work.

So in your opinion, what does an idol do?

I’m not tellin’ ya! If I did, everyone would want to be one, right? They’d go, “Oh, since I know something about being an idol I’ll give it a shot.” (laughs)

Hahaha. It is an attractive career right, being an idol.

I think it differs from person to person. But for me, I’m rather capricious. I get to do a lot of things, so I think it’s fun.

So are you glad that you became an idol?

There are times when I’m glad, and there are times when I’m not. And that is probably because it’s the same with any job. But the good times are more than the bad, so overall I’m able to say that I am glad to be an idol.

When did you feel happy that you became an idol?

I had no friends. There’s four [other members] who are always near me, right? We were always together. I thought that was great. Though it was a unique situation, it’s precisely because of the circumstances that we’re able to have a closeness that is greater than that of normal friends.

So… if Arashi hadn’t comprised of the current members, things might not have worked out like it did today, right?

That’s right. However, there’s no need to think about what would happen if the members of Arashi weren’t us five.

Ninomiya-san, even though you’re a member of Arashi, when you speak of Arashi you refer to them as “the members of Arashi”. [Translator’s note: Nino seems to be taking an outsider’s point of view when looking at the group’s members.]

I mean, these are the only people that I’ve been seeing. (laughs) The only person that I haven’t been seeing is me, right? If I plan to see myself, that’s just plain nonsense. And I don’t plan to change anything. It’s special to be a part of it.

Although Arashi has left various footprints [in the entertainment industry] in the past 10 years, what kind of impact do you think it was?

I’ve never thought about it. I didn’t think that we’d be given the privilege to cover so many events, such as our live performances in the Kokuritsu Stadium and the five Domes. We didn’t have a choice back then. It wasn’t as if we had no ambitions, but we didn’t really think deeply about it because we just wanted to have a good time.

You once mentioned in an interview that the best thing which came out of filming “Letters from Iwojima” was that if people came to know about Arashi through “Iwojima”. Wasn’t that particular project aimed at widening the circle of people who know Arashi?

Hmm… I wasn’t aiming for anything in particular, I guess. To put it simply, I was taking on a project by myself, so that was all there was to it.

It seems that every member of Arashi seems to put the interest of the group before their own personal interests.

I wonder why? That’s because we’re a bunch of good guys, right? (laughs) Well, it’s not necessarily a bad thing when someone says that they are fine on their own. I don’t deny that. But if that’s the case, we wouldn’t have grown close to each other. (laughs)

Why do you constantly work with the burden or Arashi on your shoulders?

I mean, the five of us were chosen as the members of Arashi. When we were told, “From tomorrow onwards you’re Arashi!” we went, “Aah, so it’s Arashi from tomorrow onwards, I guess…” That’s why we [work with the burden of Arashi on our shoulders.] Moreover, I think it’s amazing to be able to think about what you want to do on your own. We tend to do what we hope to do as a group.

Otherwise you wouldn’t be satisfied with what the group is doing, right?

But you know, if you aren’t satisfied with something two people came up with, there’s no way you’d be satisfied if only one person did it. I mean, it’s much faster if the five of us did it together. (laughs)

Hahahaha.

I’m telling you, it’s five times faster. We still have tonnes of stuff we’ve got to do as a group. There’s loads of things which we wanna do, and then some.