Abbreviations:

M: Marina

R: Raura

N: Nene

H: Hinata

Q: interviewer

~~~~

Q: Before looking back the 4 years of SG, let’s start with the first Minipati. This unit started before the opening of SG anyway. Rau started working as a model for magazines the earliest among the 4. Do you remember how you felt about knowing “You would do Minipati”?

R: Rau originally loved singing and was learning dancing in my childhood. So I was glad to be able to perform it in front of many people.

Q: You were supposed to form the unit with Marina and Nene.

R: I thought Nene was clingy at first. LOL Nene and I were in the same team when we tried acting at the camp. She held on me, like “Hey~” while watching other teams acting. Rau wanted to focus on memorizing the lines and watching other teams. But she tagged along with me, “Rau cha~n”, so I thought “This girl is clingy…” LOL

N: The first impression of me is always clingy.

R: For Marina, I heard “She is like a shiny idol-like girl”. So I was thinking “She would know a lot of things as she wanted to become an idol, I should ask her”, but then I heard “Nene also joins” and felt, “Oh, that girl at the camp…” LOL

N: The impression of me was awful. LOL

R: I wondered if I could get along with her, then Nene came to me like, “Nice to see you~!” when we three first met. I thought again, “Ahh, she hasn’t changed, what should I do…” LOL

Q: I heard Marina and Nene thought “Is it OK to perform with such a beautiful girl?”, “Am I going to work with her…?” (in BOG19)

N: I was talking to such a lady casually. LOL

Q: How was the activity itself?

R: That was fun, right?

M&N: Right.

M: We made Osechi and others..

N: Minipati started right after I joined Amuse and I was lacking of experience, though I think it was an important year because what I had learned there helped me in SG even if it was a little.

Q: Then SG started in 2010.

N We took a lesson audition for a year, when we had about 10 lessons the school costume arrived to the studio. So we put them on and danced, then we got scolded severely.

Q: What for?

N: For laziness. The teacher asked us before that, “Do you want to try singing and dancing?” Despite we answered “We want to”, our attitudes weren’t like that.

Q: Then, only Nene was…

N: Wait,wait, Nene wasn’t the sole troublemaker. LOL All of us.

R: We felt like it was just lessons once in a month, not an audition, so we were having fun.

N Like, ”I can meet them~!”

Q: After that, you were officially told “You 10 is going to do an idol unit, Sakura Gakuin”.

N: I remember Marina went like “Wow~!!”. You looked so hyped up.

M: I joined the agency longing for Kirari-chan (an idol character in an anime) so I was like, “We can try a singing and dancing group!!”. I was so happy.

N: As you know, the president (Ayami) and Su- were in Karen Girl’s. They were the idol of us. Like Yui often said before, I felt like “I can dance with the admiring people.”

H: As I said before (in BOG20), Hinata has been admiring Ayami-chan and following Ayami-chan all though my life.. So when I heard I could perform with her in the same group I became like “Ahh…”.

Q: Did the elementary girls get along?

N: We were getting along very well. The elementary group was often freed after the lessons while Jr. High group had to stay, so we went out for a meal or something together.

Q: How was the first stage in the summer (TIF 2010)?

H: I wonder why we could show up.

N: I agree, I watch back old videos once in a while but our dancing and singing were too messy. I wonder how we could show it to many people.

R: Thinking back, we were blessed.

H: We wrote down our introductions on manuscript papers.

M: We just read it.

H: In a monotonous tone. LOL

Q: Then you held your first event, Sakura Gakuin Festival 2010 in the autumn.

H: It was the first time we performed the club unit songs and the acting as the 10 members. I think it was the most memorable festival because everything was the first time for us. We first met Mori sensei then. How should I put it… we were taking Mori sensei like an ordinary uncle. LOL We talked to him like, “Oh, there he is again”.

N: Mori sensei called us in a different way at that time.

H: Like “Nene-chan”.

R: Right, the first name plus chan.

H: He changed that from the first open class event though.

R: He said “It became bothering to call ~~chan”. LOL

Q: You got close to him to that extent.

R: That’s true.

Q: How were the club unit activities?

M: I saw the amount of Ayami chan’s practice in Twinklestars and realized that “There’s such a hard worker!” for the first time. I looked up to her.

N: She used the studio in the dorm almost every night and practiced at least for an hour. I didn’t practice at all event though I was in the same Twinklestars, so thought “Ah, this is the serious dream chaser…”

Q: You are talking like an audience.

N: LOL Well, the president was really stoic and doing everything she could. I was affected by her attitude and felt “We have to work as hard as she is” even though I was a 6th grade.

Q: Though it’s amazing you who hadn’t learned batons before became to master it that much.

N: We were young and foolish. LOL I wonder why we didn’t give it up even with a lot of bruises.

Q: Then you made a major debut with the single “Yume ni Mukatte” on December 8th in 2010.

N: I though “We are doing idol” seeing our CDs in a CD shop finally, and felt actually “I’m doing this activity as a pro”. I was delighted. I bragged a lot, I was weirdly confident somehow then. LOL I was taking myself the cutest…

Q: Even more than senpais?

N: More than them. LOL You know, I was totally crooked at that time. LOL

R: Rau also had the weird confidence. I talked to my classmates, “Listen to the CD!” boasting it, I was thinking like, to release a CD means I’m a pro and becoming an artist like other pros.

H: We were all confident.

N: As I said it before, (in BOG20) I took ourselves cool, wearing the costumes, holding mics under the spotlight. Really cool. Felt like great people.

H: I don’t know why, but we were giving encouragements to Airi-n( Airi) at TIF, weren’t we?

N: Airi-n was freaking nervous. We told like, ”It’s all right Airi-n, just show what you have done!”, even though we didn’t have an experience (to perform on stage). LOL

R: Right, like “Go for it”. LOL

N: The confidence collapsed completely in the Jr. High 1st grade.

H: We gradually came to realize it.

N: Right, like “Aren’t we doing it wrong?”

R: An artist* who performed on the same stage at the first TIF became a big name, leaving us think like, ”What…?” and “What was the confidence we had that much!?” Then we felt, “Damn, we have to do more!”.

Q: That changed your mind?

R: Right, I thought “I wanna improve myself more” and looked for a voice exercise lesson and began to take dance lessons. I came to think “Let’s do what I can do now” and became more aware of being a member of SG.

H: Hinata felt impatient from around the open class events, like “I have to become more matured soon, otherwise the three will leave me”, still I haven’t tried hard to become matured. LOL

M: I found my character in Jr.High 1st grade.

All: Ah~!

M: I stumbled on Anime then. That was huge. Besides, the open class events started and the principal Kuramoto told us, “show your uniqueness”. So I tried to show what I loved, looking back from now, that was the moment I decided to show myself more aggressively.

Q: It may be irrelevant to your character, but I remember Ayaka-chan was trying to stop Marina’s THAT movement holding your both shoulders in the dressing room at TIF.

M: Ah, I remember it-ssu. LOL

R: She tried to stop Marina, saying “Na,Na!” LOL

Q: We thought “Is Marina such a girl?” LOL

R: For Rau, cutting my hair short was huge.

Q You would have gotten good reputations for it.

R: Pretty well, and I switched my mind to working harder by cutting my hair.

M: Yes, I knew it.

R: You knew?

M: Rau became kind after cutting your hair.

H: She changed.

R: Others were growing up fast. I hated myself being incapable. So I felt strongly, “I have to change myself” around that time.

Q: How was Nene like?

N: Nothing. LOL

Q: Nothig!?

N: I was thinking like, “I’m just one of the 12 members, things would work out somehow regardless I change or not”. LOL I couldn’t get out of the little sister mindset. I’m the oldest sister at home but I felt like a little sister in SG.

Q: How did you feel when the 1st generation graduated?

N: I just thought “They actually graduate”.

H: I felt real then, “SG is limited to the growth period”.

N: That’s true, like “It ends at Jr. High 3rd grade”.

Q: Then you turned into 2nd grade and Su-chan became the president.

R: Well, I know it’s rude though, I was thinking “Su- is unreliable”. LOL I’m very sorry for Su- but I was gaining a confidence in a wrong way again at that time, thinking “I would be able to do well next year”. Ayami was saying to Su-, “Su-chan, try your best.” and Su- was saying “Yes”, but I was thinking, “Is Su- able to manage it?” LOL Ayaka-chan and Ayami told me, “You are reliable, we can leave it to you next year”, so I gained the confidence wongly.

Q: How was Hinata like?

H: My father told Hinata, “Be careful, the start is everything”… oh, he talked about the real school. So I decided, “I’ll try SG activities and singing harder at the same time”. I think I could change a lot in Jr. High 2nd grade.

Q: I heard a testament, “You (Hinata) were out of tune while singing with full of confidence”. LOL

H: You know, I was really obstinate until Jr. High 2nd. Once I believed “This is the right tone”, I never changed it. If my mother said “Hey, Hinata, your tone is wrong”, I blew my top, like “This is the right one!” Then the voice trainer told me, “Hinata-chan, your tone is wrong.” LOL

N: When she was told that, she insisted, “What? But I think this part is like this.” and didn’t accepted it. LOL

R: That also made Rau thought, “This girl doesn’t follow what the teacher says, what a girl!” LOL

H: You know, I didn’t like the teacher said the same thing of my mother. LOL I can’t believe it now, I was totally stupid. LOL

M: But you realized it.

R: You two (Marina&Hinata) headed in the right direction. We (Nene&Raura) were in the Dark Ages. LOL

N: The dark history. LOL I totally went out of control

R: From the summer, TIF, I was going down, down…

Q: You didn’t look like that.

H: Well, their attitudes. They wore so negative aura that we couldn’t come close to within 1 meter area of them. LOL

R: We wanted to appear in the collaboration unit at TIF. But we two weren’t selected. Before that, we heard we would have the tennis club and I was thinking I would be in it. But I wasn’t there. So when the science club was announced, I believed, “I’ll definitely be in it this time!” I heard the science club would have 3 members, so I guessed, “Rinon would be in it because she hasn’t joined a club activity, Hinata also would be selected for the baton club being inactive. Then the last one should be Rau!” LOL, with Marina and Nene was selected for the tennis club. But it turned out not Rau. I thought “Is it a joke...? I went down to the darkness after that. I kept complaining and whining with Nene on the train to get home. LOL

Q: But Nene joined the tennis club.

N: Although I joined it, I wanted more spotlights. LOL I wanted any chances then. In spite of that, I didn’t make effort. It is no wonder I couldn’t get a chance. It’s natural that they wanted to give a chance to Marina who worked hard and took notes seriously, and Hinata also realized it and moved forward. But we didn’t make any effort.

R: Rau was practicing properly.

N: Then Nene was the only one who didn’t anything. LOL Despite of that, I wanted to stand out and shine. But nothing came to me so I lost my motivation. Then the recordings didn’t go smooth, the teachers got angry, we ran out of time, I caused many troubles… It’s too dark to look back.

R: Thinking back from now, I actually practiced but didn’t make effort as much as Marina did. Still I was furious, like “Why!?”, I wanna smash myself of that time. LOL

H: On top of that, the two affected Rinon. In the science club Rinon lacked concentration, so I asked her “What‘s going on?”, she said “Well, Rau-chan and Nene are saying something…”. I thought, “Those two again!” LOL

Q: If I remember correctly, were you scolded badly in the autumn of Jr. High 2nd?

R: We got scolded awfully.

N: We were told “What are you doing?”

R: “You are wasting time”, and that made me, “eh…”. When I got home and reflected that, I cried about being too foolish. Then my mother got mad at me severely, “Work hard if you have time to cry!”, and said “You caused the situation for your bad attitude, why are you crying? That’s unfair!”, to make me realized “I have to change myself”. But I think that period of time made my present self.

M: I was so worried about the two that I thought “If we can’t get along anymore, I would leave SG”….

Q: Seriously?

M: Like, “We were really getting along well before, how come it’s happening?” I felt being in a different world alone. That brought me to the dark side, though it was the other side (of Raura&Nene). (laugh)

N: Marina was terrible too.

M: I was thinking, “Am I causing these troubles?” So I’m delighted to get along again.

R: Su- told me, “Marina is depressed, you know, it’s probably because of Rau and Nenedon”, Rau was thinking it was just my own problem and wasn’t aware of that, but it actually affected her. Su- scolded me badly for that… I was sorry for Marina.

M: We finally have this day! (laugh)

H: We caused so many troubles to Su-chan.

N: I couldn’t say until now, but when 2012 nendo began, Nene, Hinata, Rau and Marina, all of us thought “I may become the president*”. LOL

R: We were told “Nobody knows who’s gonna be the president”.

N: Like, “Wow, I have a chance!”

R: So in the lessons, we went like “I’ll do it, I’ll do it”.

H: Even though Su-chan gave us cautions, we were like, “Huh?” We were bad.

Q: But maybe that partly caused Su-chan to open her eyes, it’s kind of you 4 made Su-chan of today…

All: Ahh.

Q: In a sense. LOL

R: Rau still apologizes to Su-, “I’m really sorry”.

N: Nene also can’t help but apologize to her, like “I’m so sorry at that time”.

H: We are OK as the current 2nd graders don’t cause troubles, but I guess Su-chan had a really tough time.

Q: Then you turned to the seniors finally.

R: I felt like turned into a completely different person at the Jr. High 3rd grade. I felt more strongly, “I have to change myself!” and “I have to take the initiative as we don’t have elder students!” I also came to think “Graduating at Jr. High 3rd is a good rule to grow up every members” then.

H: Each of us was granted a position this year. The Talk chairperson began to take control of MC from around the summer and the Performance chairperson found her way to handle it, while Hinata couldn’t figure out what I should’ve done as the Mood chairperson… I went down from summer to SG festival.

Q: Hinata went down as well?

H: Yes, I went down a little later. LOL

R: As Hinata often helped when we had a bad mood in the lessons, I was thinking you didn’t have to worry about it.

H: I couldn’t have an actual feeling. I wasn’t doing it (to brighten the mood) intentionally. But I changed my mind from around SG festival, I became to think “Hinata should be Hinata”, not “I have to do it”.

Q: How did you feel about Marina’s presidency?

R: When she became the president, she sometimes crawled into her shell. Therefore we Jr. High 3rd graders started to have meetings to support Marina. Honestly speaking, I thought “Marina was unreliable as well…” at the beginning. I’m sorry Marina. LOL But she ended up just saying, “Umm…” whatever we said, so I wondered “Is she really able to manage it?” But she came to open up her heart one after another, now I regard her as a reliable president.

H: When Marina crawled into her shell, she also would have closed her heart to kohais. But she said in a meeting, “I wanna end it”. She became to be teased around by kohais before TIF. LOL

Q: Like Su- changed, a president seems to grow up rapidly in summer..

H: We spend the longest time together in summer, so I feel our bond gets stronger during the period.

Q: Tell us each of your most impressive experience in 4 years of SG.

All: Eeeeehh!!

N: Too many…

R: Yes. Though it’s a recent one, visiting Hachijoujima (for the shooting of the photobook) was interesting. Rau&Nene had had opportunities to sleep together at the dorm, but the 4 hadn’t stayed together and I’d been looking forward to it. I can’t forget the two days.

N: We saw the stars at night, so beautiful.

M: Right!

H: Rau is timid. A light of the stairs (to the rooftop of their hotel) was off, then she said like, “Rau won’t go, I’m scared. You 3 should go”. LOL We forced her to come, then…

R: It was so beautiful.

N: Like a planetarium.

Q: What is Hinata’s choice?

H: The 3rd grade meetings. The more years we spent, the lesser we insisted on our opinions stubbornly, still we could talk out so much as to cry at the meetings… All of us cried, like a chain reaction. At a diner, while eating something. LOL

N: It didn’t taste at all. LOL

H: But I thought it was really good to have a talk to tears. I felt “it’s great to have comrades”, so it was the unforgettable memory for me in SG.

Q: How about Nene?

N: Nene decided to quit SG seriously in Jr. High 2nd grade and told the teacher, “I’ll quit”.

Q: Really!?

N: Yes. I didn’t like anything. As I said, I couldn’t do anything well and seriously thought, “It’s gonna be all right without Nene”. But they stopped me with their all energy after that. They encouraged me, saying “That’s not true”. I wailed at home. If they hadn’t encouraged me then, I wouldn’t be in SG. In SG… or rather, in my entire life, it is going to be the important incident for me, I was delighted.

Q: How about Marina?

M: The O-WEST stage in the last summer, it followed TIF in which I thought the Jr. High 3rd grades could move a step forward. We 4 move making a line at the last part of “Yume ni Mukatte”, singing “kimrameki hanachi saiko- no~”. At the moment, we always have eye contacts… right? We do it, right? (waving her hand briskly)

R: It’s moving a lot. LOL

H: It doesn’t work (on the book). LOL

M: I remember that moment even today. I felt, “I’m gonna be all right with the 3 this year”. I got home on that day and because the first song (of the live) was “Fly Away”…

All: You remember sooo well!

M: And the first song of the first album is also “Fly Away”, so I played it at the night, in a dark room…

All: There you go again! LOL

M: I couldn’t hold back my tears while listening to it. But the tears were good one. I felt it would be all right due to the bond we had.

Q: The bond of the 4 won’t change in future?

R: It won’t change.

N: Unless you forget about Nene…

H: How can we forget you? We’ve been together even from before SG started. We’ve been together for about a half of our lives.

R: That’s true.

M: We’ve learned a lot of things in 12, if each of us goes alone suddenly…

H: I can’t imagine we’re gonna be separated from April.

N: We were bundled up at any time, like YUIMOA.

H: Hinata actually felt “We finally get along well” at the beginning of the 3rd grade. LOL

N: I’m sorry, you know, we had the Dark Ages, and weren’t calm enough to care about others. LOL

H: When we finally get along, we have to graduate.

R: Well, we can get together if we have a trouble.

Q: That’s the “KIZUNA(bond)”-ssune.

All: Yes!!