#id.hirai momo

[idolizerp]

LOADING INFORMATION ON MAYDAY’S LEAD VOCAL, LEAD DANCE UTADA HIKARI…

IDOL DETAILS

STAGENAME: N/A CURRENT AGE: 22 DEBUT AGE: 20 TRAINEE SINCE AGE: 19 COMPANY: Midas ETC: first debuted in Japan and received moderate attention.

IDOL IMAGE

maybe it’s the fire in her eyes, or the goosebumps on her skin after a performance that indicate a job well done. maybe it all comes from the nickname those at the company gave her back in the day, midas’ dalmatian, thanks to the pattern of bruises that speckled her shins and calves after her grueling amounts of dance practices she’d accumulated over the years. it’s why the company sought out a “secret weapon” persona for her for the future — because she was locked, loaded and aimed to fire hard at the hearts of many; ready to shock the company’s stans into a new trance, a new realization of what the meaning talented should be defined as. hikari has grown far more confident with herself over the years, and it’s exactly what midas was aiming for in her image: they want a girl who is invigorating, inviting, fresh: someone who exudes confidence, but in a way that is humbled from her time as a trainee — an idol that fans can watch blossom into the star she was meant to be.

hikari doesn’t know the inner workings of how aegyo or forced cuteness is really supposed to work, or how people can seriously do it without feeling dirty afterwards. some of the inner workings of being an idol to be puzzle her, such as having to act such a level of cringe-worthy cute that she’s just not capable of it at all. despite numerous people who try to show her how, it’s so off putting that hikari has become somewhat known within the company as the girl incapable of being cute on cue. her cuteness comes naturally, organically in the form of her pure joy, not something she’s able to produce on the spot for others’ entertainment. fans find her lack of forced cuteness still charming, as she makes up for it with her strong willed, professional and determined-to-succeed persona instead.

IDOL HISTORY

she is raised on her mothers mariya takeuchi vinyls and her fathers suo masayuki vcr tapes, your typical run of the mill millennial child. her eyes are wide and always curious, a girl who becomes somewhat famous within her own family for the amount of time she can stare up at all of her aunts and uncles without blinking. her brother gets jealous often when he’s given the older child treatment, and it’s safe to say that hikari grows up the favorite. kiyoshi, almost half a decade older than his sister, grows to become somewhat protective over the younger girl and grows out of his childish stage pretty quickly.

both utada siblings develop strong admirations for their parents’ favorite 80s artists they hear every afternoon on their father’s record player; kiyoshi begins to play his first instrument, the guitar, when he enters middle school and hikari, infatuated with all the trendy female pop singers of the early 2000s, adores utada hikaru and kwon boa like they’re her two older sisters who hold her hand through the rocky terrain of adolescence and teenage-hood.

boa’s popularity in japan played a major influence on hikari’s decision to try out for osaka’s own nmb48 in 2010 at only thirteen years old. love & honesty, though released in 2004, was an album hikari held close to her heart, and proving herself to be enough, was able to debut in 2011. as one of the younger members of the group, hikari never garnered too much attention, and her performance skills were far from advanced at such a young age. it had been her passion she’d witnessed from her own pop stars that fueled her drive, but in 2012, decided to graduate from nmb48 to focus on high school and her extracurriculars, rather than being a “background dancer” for girls she knew would out-success her.

the growing wave of korean music in japan, along with hikari’s adoration for boa, inspired her to begin korean lessons in high school. drawn to the language and its relatively similar grammar pattern to her native tongue, hikari began to set her sights on the prospects of international relations for college when she’d found her knack for the language. she was a jack of all trades: she loved pop culture, loved dancing and performing, but also understood the necessity for cooperation between the two nations.

open auditions for midas media in tokyo in 2016 were enough to garner then-twenty year old hikari’s attention. already a fan of the company’s debuted groups, the now matured hikari evolved from her earlier years of mediocre dancing to boa’s earlier discography to a midas mashup of their four groups. not only did had her dancing skills grown far more polished thanks to her time as her high school’s dance crew captain, her singing skills did, as well.

“you speak very good korean, hikari-ssi,” the judges nod in approval to her once her performance has concluded; hikari blushes, flustered, anxious, dazed, everything at once. she feels shy speaking a foreign language when her parents have come with her to tokyo to offer their support for her, smiling from the sidelines, but she keeps telling herself to focus — this is your moment. the judges don’t seem to notice, ironically appearing far more impressed by hikari’s facade of confidence instead. “what are your hopes for the future?”

hikari pauses to register what they’ve asked, staring momentarily to let her brain buzz before conjuring a simple answer. “my hopes,” she begins, “are to bring people together. through my performance.”

and it certainly does. the good news comes in the form of a phone call a few weeks following that leaves her stomach twisted for a good few hours following. a few of her friends offer to take her out after she texts the group chat that the company hopes for hikari to begin her contract at her earliest convenience. when she begins, hikari finds quickly how intense her training is, and wonders if it’s perhaps due to her nationality. in reality, she finds out, is being shaped to be the company’s next “secret weapon” — expected to excel in both singing and dancing — for their next future girl group. the amount of pressure put on her to work hard, not only training to be a performer, but also to improve her korean and her integration to korean life, stuns her. it’s a brutal wake up call from what she’d been expecting considering her past experience in osaka, but she loves a challenge. the days she wants to quit weigh themselves out with the days she pushes herself to work harder than any other trainee by staying longer to prove herself capable, worth it. hikari thinks with her head, a decision she makes to keep herself out of any drama or potential chances of messing things up. the stakes are higher for her now, especially being from japan — there would be nothing she regretted more in life than a plane ride home if she let herself fall mentally. walls carefully crafted and mind focused, hikari centers herself to be her absolute best, and prove to her company that the effort was worth it.

and she works hard at it, really — it’s an intense year, but in retrospect, she’s glad it was only that long (she’d met a lot of girls along the way who had been forced into limbo for much longer and just couldn’t bear it; she couldn’t blame them, she would’ve done the same). the group she had found out a little more than half a year into her training period, one she was intended as a final member for, came and went as fast as the executives in the company had mentioned it. it was disheartening to say the least and brought upon immense highs and lows that hikari wasn’t sure would in the end help her sink or swim.

at the end of the day, mayday is enough. much of the music and its choreography doesn’t challenge her enough, wishing her company could at least give her more to work with. but it’s been a long three years and she’s still here, still reminding herself that hard work does pay off, and that she’s truly one of the lucky ones.

[idolizerp]

[ LOADING INFORMATION ON 99 TRAINEE SHIZUKU…. ]

DETAILS

CURRENT AGE: 21 TRAINEE SINCE AGE: 18 SKILL POINTS: 02 VOCAL | 08 DANCE | 00 RAP | 05 PERFORMANCE

INTERVIEW

Shizuku has a philosophy for everything, one of her favorites is one that she made up herself. “Society is often driven by vanity, and it’s love for stereotypes”. Dramatic, but true nevertheless. History has a way of repeating itself and following the same patterns. In the end, society praises and loves the innocent and naive girl. The girl who would have cute mannerisms and smiles prettily at everyone she meets. On the other hand, girls who are too opinionated and ambitious are simply misunderstood. All of the sudden words like opinionated and ambitious are synonyms with rude and bossy. To Shizuku, who she must be and who she truly is are two different things. Shizuku grew up with unrealistic expectations. Some of these expectations she had placed on herself, but most of them were created by the people around her. However, instead of fighting against it, Shizuku has made it her mission to excel and outdo any other girl on the same path to success. Therefore when she became a trainee, Shizuku had little to no complaints and had fulfilled the company’s demands with a maturity and self-awareness that surprised everyone. Of course, she hated the fact that needed put up a facade and pretend. But Shizuku was desperate to fit into the entertainment industry, to be something other than a failure.

Shizuku quickly lost the innocent and naive image within the first year of training for two reasons. One, it wasn’t working out for her, and quite honestly her acting just seemed a little off. Compared to all the other girls, her “innocence” had little weight and depth. Shizuku didn’t have the same sparkle and bubbliness as the other girls, which made it extremely hard to pretend when one actually has to compete with real innocent and naive girls. The second reason was that there were dozens of cute bubbly girls in the industry, and Shizuku knew that she was the least impressionable one. In order to debut, Shizuku needs to stand out, be more personable, be more marketable. Like a snake shedding their skin, Shizuku gradually shifts hers. With carefully crafted words and graceful demeanor, Shizuku suddenly becomes the company’s sweet little girl crush. Armed with witty but courteous comebacks or candid remarks, she desperately improves on her natural ability to read the mood of other and in turn change the atmosphere within a setting. She is more engaging now, drawing people in with her purposeful movements and mature but distant nature. They say her “openness” will be welcoming in a sea of perfectly manufactured personalities. Despite this, Shizuku genuinely tries her best to be likable. She tries her best to gain friends and earn their confidence and trust, tries to open her heart and mind as she struggles to see the world differently. The public isn’t infallible after all, they still prefer the cute girl groups. Even the groups that have a bad girl image or a girl crush image has to be sweet and adorable in interviews and variety shows.

BIOGRAPHY

⤷ TRACK ONE - Inspiration is needed

Shizuku believed that it was her destiny to dance. After all, dancing has always been the one constant thing in her life, and she hasn’t lived a single day where dancing was not a part of her thoughts, actions, and routine. Shizuku had first started dancing when she was three and had been introduced to it by her mother. One day, she was too sick and too contagious to go to daycare. Although her mother had been reluctant to bring her along to work, there was no one else who could watch at home. Shizuku has always been vaguely knowledgeable about her mother’s work. She knew that her mother worked as a ballroom dancing coach when she had given up the competitive scene and decided to open up her own dance school with one of her closest friends, but aside from those small bits of information, Shizuku knew nothing. It wasn’t until she had accompanied her mother to work, and had watched the performance of one of the “couples” through the glass walls of her mother’s office that Shizuku finally understood why her mother was always so eager to go to work in the morning. The way the couple had moved together had left her breath taken. How fluid they moved together as they balanced each other’s weight, the various positions their muscles had formed, and the quick pace of their feet had Shizuku sneaking her way into one of the beginner’s classes. Needless to say, Shizuku had infected that particular group of children that day.

⤷ TRACK TWO - Challenging Partner

Shizuku had known Kazuya all her life. Their mothers were the closest of friends, dance rivals and eventually business partners. Like herself, Kazuya had grown up in the school their mothers had built. They had learned the correct posture and the first steps of the waltz together. The studio was his second home as much as it was hers, which is why Shizuku didn’t put up a fight when their mothers’ decided to pair them up together. However, that didn’t mean that he was Shizuku’s first choice of a leader.

They argued a lot, even the sound of their heels against the wooden floor could spark the tiniest argument between them. They were too alike, silent by nature and they approached dance with the same intensity and passion. But at the same time, their sense of unity, beauty, and perspectives are too different. They’ve eventually learned to work together as time went on. Learned to compromise, listen to their other’s concerns and advise, and most importantly, forgive the each other’s mistakes and shortcomings. They had grown to respect and depend on one another, that is why it had hurt when Kazuya had hidden his injury from her.

⤷ TRACK THREE - The End of an Era

Often times the dancesport community like to make several references to marriage. They say the most difficult and dramatic part of “marriage” is divorce. In Shizuku and Kazuya’s case, it had been anticlimactic. They were seventeen, at the height of their careers when Kazuya stopped dancing. His injury kept recurring until it finally took a turn for the worst. The doctors kept saying there was little to no hope of ever recovering full movement and so Kazuya forced to stop competing. It was an adjustment for both of them; in Shizuku’s case, she needed to find a new lead. Despite that there were more girls than boys in the community, it sounded easy at the start as Shizuku received many offers for new partnerships. However, with every new leader, Shizuku was losing hope.

⤷ TRACK FOUR - Begin Again

When she was younger, Shizuku always wondered why her mother had stopped competing at an early age. It was obvious in her old competition videos that she had enjoyed competing. It was also obvious that she enjoyed the competitive atmosphere whenever she would watch her students compete. It had been baffling to a younger Shizuku to see her mother give up something she truly loved. It wasn’t until she was much older than she finally understood that life and circumstances had a way of standing in your way. It had been her mother who had sent in her audition video. She had been angry at first, but she had also understood. When she had stopped going to the studio, she knew that something drastic had to happen. She couldn’t stand the unbearable looks the other dancers, and coaches had given her. It had been maddening, therefore after the initial shock and frustration had worn off, Shizuku had agreed to go to South Korea.

In order to survive — in order to move forward, Shizuku tells herself repeatedly that she is used to being far away from home, she is used to rigorous training. The change of style throws her off balance, the things she learns in dance practice are heavily influenced by modern dance and hip-hop. Objectively, Shizuku has always been a versatile dancer; she had to be in order to dance the ten dances. She takes pride in her fluidity and ability to make the small and large moves look effortless but modern dance and hip-hop had a distinctive kind of power and sharpness that Shizuku had never thought even applying to any of her techniques. It doesn’t help nor improve her confidence that everyone around her is so over-obsessed with freestyle and musicality and if there was one area Shizuku struggled in, it was letting go, bringing her wall down, and conveying her emotions. Regardless, Shizuku throws herself into training, into learning the Korean language and culture as a means of escaping her problems. Shizuku had never thought of becoming an idol, had never thought of having concerts and fame. She most definitely had never thought she would ever sing in front of an audience. Despite this, she finds it particularly amusing how her life has turned out. The places life likes to take you, it’s certainly funny.

[idolizerp]

[ LOADING INFORMATION ON MIDAS’ TRAINEE TSUKIKO…. ]

DETAILS

CURRENT AGE: 20 SKILL POINTS: 02 VOCAL | 05 DANCE | 05 RAP | 03 PERFORMANCE

INTERVIEW

due to debuting in a jpop group at a young age, tsukiko has been doing the cute concepts for almost everything. she didn’t have a problem with it, up until the age of eighteen. she’d been growing and becoming more mature and felt as if the cute label didn’t fit her anymore.

in her past, she was the youngest member of a group by the name of ‘申し申し’ (otherwise known as moshimoshi, or speaking speaking). the group was the stereotypical cutie japanese girl group and because of this, people in korea and japan tend to see her as the bright eyed, chubby cheeked girl who debuted with moshimoshi.

she’s currently hoping to debut with a mature concept, but she isn’t sure if her dreams will come true. tsukiko has been working hard on improving her stage presence and getting rid of the “cutie” label her previous group had given her. she’s having quite a bit of trouble escaping it because of her personality.

tsukiko is a naturally motherly and caring person. people find it adorable when she worries about her friends or something they’re going to do. though she doesn’t show it, tsukiko despises this and will do anything she can to escape the label.

tsukiko is also having trouble with stage fright. she’s a bit nervous preforming over seas, in a country other than japan. she’d been so used to speaking japanese and knowing her surroundings. in korea, she doesn’t have that sense of home and is worried she’ll make a fool of herself in front of a crowd of unfamiliar faces.

however, at this point in her life, she is so desperate to prove her father wrong and become successful. she’ll be willing to debut with any concept, even a cute one. all she wants to do is succeed, make her friends happy, and show her dad she made it.

BIOGRAPHY

she was a white lily, pure and virtuous.

nakamura tsukiko was born on december 5th in tokyo, japan. her parents were quite well known and were considered celebrities in japan. her father, a handsome and charismatic business man. her mother, a beautiful and humble singer.

from a young age, tsukiko was given everything she needed to be like her mother. singing lessons (which soon turned to rapping) and dancing lessons. her parents wanted her to be the it girl of japan.

that dream, however, was cut short for tsukiko and her parents. when tsukiko was just eleven years old, her father was arrested on criminal charges of embezzlement and fraud on more than one claim. her mother knew what was going on with her husband, so she planned out what she’d do when he got caught.

according to her plan, she and tsukiko would follow specific lines and directions. they claimed they knew nothing about the charges, saying they lost everything to someone they thought they could trust.

her mother was left with no money and no possessions. everything was returned, they didn’t even have any clothes to wear. so, tsukiko and her mother found themselves at their grandparents house in a small town in akita, japan.

not soon after, tsukiko’s mother shipped her off to her former entertainment company. there, tsukiko trained for three years before debuting at age fourteen. her group, named moshimoshi, was the only group to not do well from this company.

tsukiko blames herself for the group’s failure. her father blames her, too.

‘tsukiko, your group failed because of you. we spent all this time making you perfect and now you fail us? i’m glad i’m locked up so i don’t have to witness the mess that is your performances. your mother should be ashamed, you’re ruining everything she’s worked for.’

upset and pissed off, tsukiko worked harder. however. after her group promoted for two years, they disbanded. tsukiko wanted to prove her dad wrong. she wanted to be the best performer the world has ever seen.

no less than a year later, tsukiko found herself in south korea, auditioning for a company she knew nothing about. she hoped her past experience would be enough to get her in, and it was. she was homesick, but she knew it’d pay off in the end.

even if she wasn’t in japan, she would become famous. she wanted to make her father regret his words.

to this day, tsukiko has been training harder than ever before. she’s determined to become well liked in korea and eventually japan.

and with that, the white lily died and a black rose was born.

[idolizerp]

LOADING INFORMATION ON NEON’S LEAD VOCAL, LEAD DANCE UTADA HIKARI...

IDOL DETAILS

STAGENAME: n/a CURRENT AGE: 22 DEBUT AGE: n/a, trainee TRAINEE SINCE AGE: 20 COMPANY: Midas SECONDARY SKILL: n/a

IDOL PROFILE

NICKNAME(S): 히카리하루 (everyday hikari), 히카링 (hikaring) ヒッキー2.0 (hikki 2.0, an ode to utada hikaru’s official nickname hikki) INSPIRATION: utada hikaru, even though their names being similar are entirely coincidental, and kwon boa, who first inspired her to try out dancing. SPECIAL TALENTS:

can mimic every 1st generation pokémon call.

known for her exceptionally pretty penmanship in both japanese and korean.

NOTABLE FACTS:

her name is almost the same as utada hikaru, however it is pure coincidence since utada hikaru hadn’t become famous in japan until 2 years after she was born.

has a shiba inu named pika back in osaka who lives with her parents.

passed midas’ 2016 auditions in tokyo following her graduation from nmb48 in 2012.

loves reading fiction novels in her free time, especially science fiction or horror.

has an older brother who is in a rock band.

IDOL GOALS

SHORT-TERM GOALS:

besides having the opportunity to debut, being from japan, she’d like to be able to be the “glue” that attracts japanese fans to her group and bring her international and domestic fans together.

LONG-TERM GOALS:

inspired by her idols utada and boa, she’d like to become a solo artist in japan someday, and a life dream of hers is to someday sing an ost for a tetsuya nomura video game.

IDOL IMAGE

maybe it’s the fire in her eyes, or the goosebumps on her skin after a performance that indicate a job well done. maybe one day she’ll earn the nickname for midas’ own dalmatian, thanks to the pattern of bruises that speckle her shins and calves after her grueling amounts of dance practices she’s accumulated over time. it’s why the company has sought for a “secret weapon” persona for her for the future — because she is locked, loaded and aimed to fire hard at the hearts of many; ready to shock the company’s stans into a new trance, a new realization of what the meaning talented should be defined as. hikari has grown far more confident with herself over the years, and it’s exactly what midas is aiming for in her image: they want a girl who is invigorating, inviting, fresh: someone who exudes confidence, but in a way that is humbled from her time as a trainee.

hikari doesn’t know the inner workings of how aegyo is really supposed to work, or how people can seriously do it without feeling dirty afterwards. some of the inner workings of being an idol to be puzzle her, such as having to act such a level of cringe-worthy cute that she’s just not capable of it at all. other company trainees and staff try to show her how, but it’s so off putting that hikari has become somewhat known within the company as the girl incapable of being cute on cue. her cuteness comes naturally, organically in the form of her pure joy, not something she’s able to produce on the spot for others’ entertainment. she figures she’ll be one of those idols known for their lack of aegyo, but hopes to make up for it with her strong willed, professional and determined-to-succeed persona instead.

IDOL HISTORY

she is raised on her mothers mariya takeuchi vinyls and her fathers suo masayuki vcr tapes, your typical run of the mill millennial child. her eyes are wide and always curious, a girl who becomes somewhat famous within her own family for the amount of time she can stare up at all of her aunts and uncles without blinking. her brother gets jealous often when he’s given the older child treatment, and it’s safe to say that hikari grows up the favorite. kiyoshi, almost half a decade older than his sister, grows to become somewhat protective over the younger girl and grows out of his childish stage pretty quickly.

both utada siblings develop strong admirations for their parents’ favorite 80s artists they hear every afternoon on their father’s record player; kiyoshi begins to play his first instrument, the guitar, when he enters middle school and hikari, infatuated with all the trendy female pop singers of the early 2000s, adores utada hikaru and kwon boa like they’re her two older sisters who hold her hand through the rocky terrain of adolescence and teenage-hood.

boa’s popularity in japan played a major influence on hikari’s decision to try out for osaka’s own nmb48 in 2010 at only thirteen years old. love & honesty, though released in 2004, was an album hikari held close to her heart, and proving herself to be enough, was able to debut in 2011. as one of the younger members of the group, hikari never garnered too much attention, and her performance skills were far from advanced at such a young age. it had been her passion she’d witnessed from her own pop stars that fueled her drive, but in 2012, decided to graduate from nmb48 to focus on high school and her extracurriculars, rather than being a “background dancer” for girls she knew would out-success her.

the growing wave of korean music in japan, along with hikari’s adoration for boa, inspired her to begin korean lessons in high school. drawn to the language and its relatively similar grammar pattern to her native tongue, hikari began to set her sights on the prospects of international relations for college when she’d found her knack for the language. she was a jack of all trades: she loved pop culture, loved dancing and performing, but also understood the necessity for cooperation between the two nations.

open auditions for midas media in tokyo in 2016 were enough to garner then-twenty year old hikari’s attention. already a fan of the company’s debuted groups, the now matured hikari evolved from her earlier years of mediocre dancing to boa’s earlier discography to a midas mashup of their four groups. not only did had her dancing skills grown far more polished thanks to her time as her high school’s dance crew captain, her singing skills did, as well.

“you speak very good korean, hikari-ssi,” the judges nod in approval to her once her performance has concluded; hikari blushes, flustered, anxious, dazed, everything at once. she feels shy speaking a foreign language when her parents have come with her to tokyo to offer their support for her, smiling from the sidelines, but she keeps telling herself to focus — this is your moment. the judges don’t seem to notice, ironically appearing far more impressed by hikari’s facade of confidence instead. “what are your hopes for the future?”

hikari pauses to register what they’ve asked, staring momentarily to let her brain buzz before conjuring a simple answer. “my hopes,” she begins, “are to bring people together. through my performance.”

and it certainly does. the good news comes in the form of a phone call a few weeks following that leaves her stomach twisted for a good few hours following. a few of her friends offer to take her out after she texts the group chat that the company hopes for hikari to begin her contract at her earliest convenience. when she begins, hikari finds quickly how intense her training is, and wonders if it’s perhaps due to her nationality. in reality, she finds out, is being shaped to be the company’s next “secret weapon” — expected to excel in both singing and dancing — for their next future girl group. the amount of pressure put on her to work hard, not only training to be a performer, but also to improve her korean and her integration to korean life, stuns her. it’s a brutal wake up call from what she’d been expecting considering her past experience in osaka, but she loves a challenge. the days she wants to quit weigh themselves out with the days she pushes herself to work harder than any other trainee by staying longer to prove herself capable, worth it. hikari thinks with her head, a decision she makes to keep herself out of any drama or potential chances of messing things up. the stakes are higher for her now, especially being from japan — there would be nothing she regretted more in life than a plane ride home if she let herself fall mentally. walls carefully crafted and mind focused, hikari centers herself to be her absolute best, and prove to her company that the effort was worth it.