Arama They Didn't

Nina Minagawa with Akimoto Yasushi

This interview was taken from 'M girl' 2011 Spring/Summer, it was released recently and features AKB48 member Mayuyu as well as other interviews with Nina Minagawa.

Mika: It's been a while since I saw you last. Thank you very much for speaking with me.

Yasushi: It's my pleasure.

Interviewer: This is the third time you've seen each other?

Yasushi: I have seen you several times before, but this is actually only the second time we've worked together. We produced the "Heavy Rotation" music video together as our first work. I heard that you frequently visited AKB Theatre for several years before that?

Mika: Yes. My friend who is an editor of an anime magazine invited me to the theatre. I became a big fan of AKB48 after that. I remember that there were only two teams at that time. Team A and Team K. I went to the theatre to watch their performance even on Christmas Eve. They were quite cute, but I did not imagine they would get so popular!

Interviewer: Mr. Akimoto asked Ms. Ninagawa to make the "Heavy Rotation" Music Video. Surprisingly, Ms. Ningawa dressed AKB48 up with sexy lingerie, and shot kiss scenes in the video. I have never heard of this scenario before.

Mika: I was under a lot of pressure because Mr. Akimoto left everything to me. He did not give me any tips at all. But this gave me more options to create interesting and exciting content. It pushed me to think deeply about how to make a good music video.

Yasushi: I just wanted to maximize Ms. Ninagawa's ability to make a good video. For example in the television show "Iron Chef", as a producer I just supply the raw material to the chef. It is the chefs job to think over the recipe to win the game. In this case, Ms. Ninagawa was the chef and AKB48 was the raw material.

Mika: I was so glad to take this job as a director, but again it was a lot of pressure on me. When I was wondering how to proceed, Mr. Akimoto came to me, saying "Please do what you want to do without any hesitation."

Yasushi: From my experience, I learn that creators lose their creativity if I give them detailed instructions. As a result, the outcome may be stale. So I let Ms. Ninagawa make "Heavy Rotation" in her way. I also expected to see a different AKB48, created by Ninagawa's world. Fans could watch their sexy lingerie and kiss scene in the video because it was Ms. Ninagawa decision. I mean, if the director were male, AKB48 might feel unpleasant and refuse to do that. AKB48 completely trusted Ms. Ninagawa, so there was no distrust.

Mika: I tried to show how AKB48 is in real life, in the video. In the dressing room, they seemed very close to each other. Then I came up with the concept, girl's high school. Mr. Akimoto agreed with this concept. In the video, I set several girl-girl scenes, such as lingerie or kiss scene. I explained to the girls of AKB48 that lingerie did not mean dirty sexuality. In general high school students wear sexy lingerie and show it to each other in the school. I explained my concept of how the lingerie was linked to the innocence and good of AKB48. They comfortably understood my concept and willingly accepted to wear lingerie. I asked AKB48 to choose their hair ornament, but I brought in my fashion team to do their hair and make up. Together we transformed them into a new AKB48. I could see different faces of AKB48 after that. Some members even fell asleep during the stand-by, which we recorded in the video. They were really cute.

Yasushi: It was good timing to release "Heavy Rotation" video. Young girls started to recognize and start talking about AKB48.

Mika: Did you actually think that AKB48 would get so popular?

Yasushi: Frankly speaking, I could expect it. "Heavy Rotation" could send a catch message to the audience. I don't believe a relationship between recognition and popularity. I wanted to create a group who was not well recognized in public, but who was very popular among their fans.

Mika: What was the most important thing to you about them?

Yasushi: The most important factor was.....

Source: Jet Ready Go @ Nihongogo

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