#(looks at the profile) sweats this interview is from before 1st live

[saitou-shuka]

[English Translation] B.L.T. VOICE GIRLS Vol. 29: Saito Shuka Interview

SHUKA SAITO

She became more gentle to make her dreams come true

As someone with a flashy seiyuu debut in Love Live! Sunshine!! under her belt, just what kind of future awaits Saito Shuka? It was still chilly as she wandered around at the shrine and along the floodplain in the afternoon. Dressed in her best clothes, she poured her heart out to us with a giant smile.

photo = Fujimoto Kazunori text = Ōkubo Kazunori styling = SHIBA hair&makeup = Onodera Risa

SHUKA SAITO INTERVIEW

“I don’t really understand what kind of person I am. The people around me have been helping me get to know myself better.”

Saito Shuka Born on August 16th in Saitama Prefecture. Leo. Blood type A. She debuted as Watanabe You in Love Live! Sunshine!!. As part of the same franchise, she began participating in activities as a cast member of Aqours. The solo live of the aforementioned group, “Aqours First Love Live! ~Step! ZERO to ONE~”, will be held at Yokohama Arena on February 25th and 26th. Their new single HAPPY PARTY TRAIN releases April 5th.

Official Blog: http://ameblo.jp/shuka-saito/ Official Twitter: https://twitter.com/Saito_Shuka

After being chosen to voice Watanabe You in “Love Live! Sunshine!!” and debuting as a seiyuu, it seemed as if she was catapulted into stardom overnight. As an active member of the school idol group Aqours, she is awaiting the release of their 3rd single, “HAPPY PARTY TRAIN”, on April 5th, and will likely achieve even more beyond that this year. That very same Saito Shuka told us about the various feelings she has now.

Since your coming-of-age ceremony happened, the feature turned into a fancy kimono photoshoot.

I knew I was going to be like this, but I was pretty tense wearing a kimono. On top of that, during the photoshoot they were telling me that I wasn’t going to just gracefully sit there smiling, and that it was okay for me to move around quickly. This blew away my preconception that I needed to be very conscious of the kimono I was wearing. I thought it was fun that I was able to break that impression I had!

From how you appear in the photoshoot, you seem to be cheerful, but also someone who is very serious, Saito-san.

I don’t think I’m a serious person at all, but there are a lot of people who have told me otherwise. I personally think I’m not very reliable (bitter laugh).

But you often practice singing and dancing even when you have the day off, don’t you?

When there’s something I have to do, I can’t help but think about it. Because of that, I pretty much deal with work even if I have the day off. It’s because I love my work more than anything. But, if I actually have nothing to do, then sometimes I just sleep all day, and sometimes all I’ll do is talk to my friends. Besides, I had no idea someone like me would be considered serious. I often think about how it would be better if I was more stoic in regards to my work.

Just before, you said that you often hear from other people. What else do they tell you a lot, other than that you’re “serious”?

They told me that deep down, I have a stiff personality (bitter laugh). When you’re stiff, even if your performance is graceful, the people watching you won’t be able to truly enjoy it because they can see the stiffness. Since they told me, I looked at women who have a more gentle feel to them, and I researched their expressions and stuff. In particular, there seem to be a lot of announcers who appear very gentle, so I keep in mind what they’re like and use them as reference.

Anything else they’ve told you?

They’ve told me that I have a lot of mental switches I flip to change my mood. That surprised me. I’ve never noticed that about myself. I didn’t even notice that I was changing my mood in the first place. But, now that they’ve told me, I guess it is kind of like that. I don’t really understand what kind of person I am, so I’ve been learning about myself from others a lot. Everyone exposes all these traits I didn’t even know I had (laugh). Some time ago, my friends from middle school made an instruction manual on me, and it was spot on! They knew just about everything about me (laugh).

Could you specifically tell us what kinds of things are written in this so-called instruction manual?

Someone wrote “When she’s embarrassed, she’ll hit her friends”. I wasn’t aware I did this either, but I guess I do, huh (bitter laugh). Someone also wrote “when she’s super excited, she’ll fumble her words”, which is also accurate. Even though I don’t have much of a vocabulary in the first place, every time I become more aware of how much I want to convey my feelings, what I’m saying can’t catch up to how I’m feeling and I slip up (laugh). Other things people wrote include “When she’s super excited, she’ll jump around”, “She shows her love through insults”, “If you’re nice to her when she’s trying to play tough, she’ll cry”. All of this is completely true, so I think that it’s pretty likely that I haven’t changed much since then.

Compared to those days, you haven’t changed and become more mature?

I haven’t changed. I met up with some middle school classmates I hadn’t seen in two years, but they told me that I really hadn’t changed at all. It made me strangely happy, though. I mean, when you were a kid, you'd have fun no matter what you were doing, right? It would be nice if I could become an adult without forgetting that kind of mindset. Of course, although I’ve grown in the sense that my singing and dancing skills have improved, I thought that I’d become an adult without changing the essence of who I am. Wait, while we were talking, I thought of something that did change! I remembered just now!

So something has changed, right?

I cry more easily now. In the first place, I’m so weak I cry watching shows about animals and kids’ shows, but it’s even worse now. Now it’s like, even when I’m just practicing dance at my house on a day off, I’ll start to tear up. After debuting as a voice actress, opportunities to go meet the fans who have been supporting us at events and stuff have increased. When I think about that during dance practice, I end up crying. Even though I was a nobody when I first debuted, now there are so many people who know who I am and who have helped me figure out what kind of person I am. When I think about that, I could just cry…...

What attitude do you have towards all the activities you’ll have to do from now on?

There are a lot of voice roles for energetic girls available right now, but I’d like to try voicing a young guy, or maybe a girl who’s kind of timid, since I want to become able to voice someone whose personality is completely different from mine. One day, I’d also like to try taking on the challenge of voicing a sexy older woman. Since there’s a lot I still haven’t tried doing and a lot of things I still don’t know about, I’ll just keep exploring my options. I want to see the various expressions everyone will make along the way. I’ll do my best as part of Aqours so that people come to love Love Live! Sunshine!! more and more, because I want to make a lot of dreams come true together with everyone who is cheering us on. For the next three years, five years, and for the future, I’ll put forth nothing but hard work!

TL: shukamod QC: Yujacha (@yujachachacha)

[fywannaone]

Hi! I'm an Australian fan and I got tickets to KCON Australia. I wanted to ask what is the best way to learn about each member or a series I can watch? (I have produce 101 s2 on my watchlist) Or a guide/blog that you recommend? I really love this blog, thank you for the awesome updates! Love from Australia 🇦🇺

hey there!! thanks for the support :) this is a long post packed with lots of wanna one show recommendations & TONS of little facts (equipped with videos) about wanna one themselves to help new wannables! so i put everything below the “read more” line. i went really crazy with this post but have fun at kcon australia!

the ultimate wanna one starter pack

here’s some things we highly recommend watching:

energetic music video

burn it up music video

pick me (produce 101)

produce 101 season 2

the first 10 episodes are subbed on 101SUBS, and the 11th (final) is coming soon!

fun watches: eye contact videos, meringue time videos and self-introduction videos, hidden box videos

wanna one go (incomplete!)

ep 1 (subbed)

ep 2 (subbed)

weekly idol

1 (subbed)

2 (no subs for this one yet since it just came out!)

wanna one’s vlive!!

this is the perfect place to see wanna one act casual! (and live, at that)

all videos have subs 1-2 days after their release

snl9

you don’t learn much about the members personalities from this as they’re all acting..but it’s a good laugh! there are plenty of inside jokes

don’t know if there are full subs yet..but there are definitely subbed cuts!! (daniel & minhyun cut, 3 minute boyfriend cuts, jisung/jaehwan/guanlin/sungwoon cut, woojin & daehwi cut - can’t find this one subbed, sorry!)

happy together 3

1 (subbed)

2 (jisung, minhyun, seongwoo, daniel & jihoon only) (no subs yet!) 

fun watches:

real night of entertainment (minhyun, daniel & jihoon only) (subbed)

the return of superman (jisung, seongwoo, daniel & jihoon only)

1 (subbed)

2 (no subs yet)

idol fever (a drama starring surprise u, fantagio’s newest idol actor group, that seongwoo had a cameo in! seongwoo is from fantagio so that explains why)

all subbed on ‘idol fever’ vlive channel 

yoojung & doyeon of i.o.i and weki meki, moonbin of astro, seo kangjoon of 5urprise appear in this drama too!

let’s eat dinner together (daniel & jihoon only) (not subs yet)

essentially a show where the two mcs, kang hodong & lee kyungkyu, and any of their guests go around on a mission to have dinner with a family

mnet present

this was a video released just before wanna one debuted with ‘energetic’! not sure if there are subs for this yet

things that happen here: members imitate each other, minhyun/seongwoo/woojin/jihoon talk in dialect with each other

energetic music video BTS

recording BTS

just roam our /tagged/v: bts, /tagged/v: sub and /tagged/v: other tags

things that haven’t come out yet, but to look forward to

it’s dangerous outside the blankets (daniel only)

it’s a new show, so we don’t know much about it. but apparently it’s just a variety show about celebrities that enjoy spending time inside! xiumin of exo, junhyung of highlight (previously known as beast), lee sangwoo & park jaejung appear alongside.

the first episode will air at 11:15 PM KST on august 27th

meet&greet

it’s a show made for idols to interact with their favourite idol groups!

it will go live at 5 PM KST on august 28th! we’ll provide links to the episode closer to its release.

immortal songs

this one is a singing show, but it often has an in-between interview-like show

wanna one’s episode is set to air at 6:05 PM KST on august 27th

about the wanna one members (make sure to visit our about page!)

kang daniel

ranked 1st in produce 101

from mmo entertainment

known to attract noonas (older women)

his name used to be ‘kang euigeon’ but he changed it because no one could pronounce it

his legendary thigh sweep

‘get ugly’ fancam

fans think he looks like apeach (hence why he is given many apeach plushies at fansigns and he has fansites based around the word ‘peach’)

daniel imitating apeach, daniel with an apeach plush, that one time in produce 101 when he looked like apeach

he (like woojin) uses busan dialect

a compilation of daniel using busan dialect

can b-boy

laughs a lot (and he said he laughs when he is embarrassed)

everyone loves kang daniel

harry pote

shares a room with seongwoo & jisung

park jihoon

ranked 2nd in produce 101

from maroo entertainment

popular since day 1 of produce 101! got known as ‘wink boy’ for winking at the end of ‘pick me’

he was previously an sm and fantagio trainee! so he listed that he is close to astro and mark of nct on his profile

people think his fashion is bad lol

NAE MAEUM SOGE, JEOJANG

he likes dancing, especially popping

is known as ‘pink sausages’ with woojin

was a child actor and (acting) cried on tv beside g-dragon once?? (+ here’s him crying to sad music on weekly idol)

kkukkukkakka

jihoon & sungwoon’s english conversation

shares a room with guanlin, woojin, minhyun & jaehwan

lee daehwi

ranked 3rd in produce 101

from brand new music

known as the center of ‘pick me’! he was voted in by the other boys from produce 101

lived in america for awhile (so he’s fluent in english - 1, on weekly idol)

formerly a jyp trainee, so he is close to somi of i.o.i!

appeared in mc gree’s ‘dangerous’

he composes! in fact, he co-produced, composed and co-wrote (woojin co-wrote too) his fellow produce 101 trainees + label mates, kim donghyun and im youngmin (mxm), title track ‘good day’! he also wrote ‘hollywood’, which was the song the brand new music trainees auditioned with at produce 101.

fans think he looks like an otter (1, 2)

MAGU MAGU

knows a lot of girl group dances (as if it’s your last by blackpink, he did a lot on weekly idol)

shares a room with jinyoung & sungwoon

kim jaehwan

ranked 4th in produce 101

independent trainee! so, he has no company (but for wanna one promotions, he signed with cj e&m)

HIS LAUGH (1, 2, 3, 4)

the boy can SING

the boy can also RAP

the boy is a VISUAL

actually, just have this video of him doing taekwondo, rapping and playing the flute

says he is 2m39

says he knows how to cook (but has never chopped onions before?) (somewhere in wanna one go ep 2)

can play the guitar! (skyfall on the guitar) (and another one) (and another one) (there are lots…)

he is the dirtiest member… (somewhere in wanna one go ep 1)

look at him chewing on this lettuce like a bunny

shares a room with jihoon, guanlin, minhyun & woojin

ong seongwoo

ranked 5th in produce 101

from fantagio music

SLATE

always funny, even during 2x dancing

his wOOOOooooOOO in ‘get ugly’

he can b-boy and do popping

was a store clothing model before (and he is embarrassed by some of the pics, 2)

he has a LOT of funny moments (1, 2, 3, 4)

can do this weird ear popping thing

the boy can ACT (and this)

shares a room with daniel & jisung

park woojin

ranked 6th in produce 101

from brand new music

says he is a seoul person, but nothing can hide his busan accent (somewhere in wanna one go ep 1)

sexy baby oh my lady

he’s got a snaggletooth

appeared in mc gree’s ‘dangerous’

his past…is something

little t.o.p, singing only one by boa, a compilation of his past

you can’t spell woojin without dancing!! (1, 2, 3 - he performed this one even when he had shingles)

not too far behind daehwi in the realm of cover dances!

is known as ‘pink sausages’ with jihoon

shares a room with minhyun, jaehwan, guanlin & jihoon

lai guanlin

ranked 7th in produce 101

from cube entertainment

LOVES WOOSEOK FROM PENTAGON (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

he’s from taiwan and can speak chinese, english & korean

this troublemaker cover with seonho (another cube trainee that participated in produce 101 with him) 

rapping

the giggliest maknae ever (just watch any wanna one video and he will probably be giggling on the side)

eating

timber cover he did when he was younger…lol

he’s got a messy locker at cube

but he’s also (in guanlin’s words) a manly man 

shares room with jihoon, jaehwan, minhyun & woojin

yoon jisung

ranked 8th in produce 101

from mmo entertainment

YOON JISUNG SSHI

leader of talkative mmo

when he got 3rd place

invented the legendary circle clap

great leader

dancing to red flavor by red velvet!

dubbed the mom of the group

jinyoung talks about how caring jisung is somewhere in wanna one go ep 1

b-boying god yoon jisung

seongwoo scaring jisung somewhere in wanna one go ep 1

his fans are called rice grains, so he is their rice pot

shares room with daniel & seongwoo

hwang minhyun

ranked 9th in produce 101

from pledis entertainment

in a group called nu’est, which debuted back in 2012

4/5 nu’est members (minhyun, baekho/dongho, ren/minki, jr/kim jonghyun) joined produce 101 in hopes of gaining popularity and fans

which they did! since produce, nu’est sans minhyun formed a subunit named ‘nu’est w’ (w for wait..meaning they’ll wait for minhyun to finish wanna one promos and join nu’est again) and the members have much more schedules

some nu’est songs: overcome, love paint, face, hello, if you (nu’est w)

fans think he looks like a desert fox

really likes singing (1, 2, 3, 4)

appeared in orange caramel ‘shanghai romance’

known for creating ‘justice league/sorry sorry team 2′ because a lot of the members from that team became popular after getting picked by him

also accurately guessed who would stay (and in what order they would rank) in never team

this all resulted in the nickname ‘ceo minhyun’

his face when yoojung and doyeon came

from busan, but can’t do a good busan accent anymore?

ACTING

cried at the produce 101 finale :’(

keeps doing the butt dance (1, 2, somewhere in weekly idol too i think?)

his relationship with seonho (1, 2, 3, 4, seonho appears in wanna one go ep 2)

co-produced, co-composed, co-wrote ‘thank you’ by nu’est

allergic to salt (gets rashes when in contact with salt or salty water, even his sweat!)

shares room with guanlin, jaehwan, jihoon & woojin

bae jinyoung

ranked 10th in produce 101

from c9 entertainment

small head

deep singing voice! (1, 2, 3)

YES GOOD

ttak ttak (1, 2)

jinyoung and daehwi’s relationship as described by seongwoo

hands on me center!!

allergic to shrimp

shares room with daehwi & sungwoon

ha sungwoon

ranked 11th in produce 101

from star crew entertainment (previously ardor & able)

in a group called hotshot, which debuted back in 2014

2/6 hotshot members (sungwoon & kid monster/taehyun) joined produce 101

similarly to nu’est, hotshot also gained popularity and have since (with the remaining members) comeback with ‘jelly’

some hotshot songs: i’m a hotshot, take a shot, midnight sun, watch out 

sungwoon’s and taehyun’s reaction when sungwoon appeared on the top 4 screen

pt 2 of sungwoon and taehyun’s chemistry

VOCALS FOR DAYS (1, 2, 3)

2nd most giggliest member after guanlin

spongebob impersonation

sungwoon’s grandpa appeared on wanna one go

jihoon and sungwoon’s english conversation

a good sungwoon compilation

nailing the never dance

shares room with jinyoung & daehwi

….i just started typing and couldn’t stop…i also recommend the produce 101 season 2 subreddit for timely updates and compilation posts of wanna one (as well as other produce 101 contestants)! they have posts on fanaccounts from fansignings, which are really fun to read.