/jp/ - Otaku Culture

AKB48 Team 8, with the concept of “Idols who go to meet you”, composed up of 47 girls elected from each of the 47 prefectures, has added new members.

These three new members, Aichi prefecture representative Utada Hatsuka, Mie prefecture representative Noda Hinano, and Nagasaki prefecture representative Terada Misaki, each have done a solo interview with photo session with us.

(Utada Hatsuka feature)

“I don’t stand out at school”

----Please tell us what you felt when you first stood on the stage during the Chiba concert

I kept telling myself “Don’t be nervous”. But surprisingly I was pretty okay. When we went out on the stage, there was a really loud cheer, so it was a lot of fun actually.

----Were the lessons for the sake of your debut hard?

Immediately it felt like “I can do this” but actually trying it I had a lot of trouble especially with figuring out rhythm and stuff. It was hard.

----What made you want to enter AKB48?

Well I don’t have a lot of friends at school and I have a sort of plain presence. I didn’t really like it so my best friend said “Let’s start a ‘Loner Revolution’” so we auditioned.

----Do you not stand out much at school?

I wouldn’t call myself shy but… interacting with people around me made me feel things like “It’s embarrassing, so it’s impossible” “I guess I’m kind of shy” so I stopped standing in the front so much.

“Am I really good enough…?”

----During the audition did you get any feedback?

Not at all. Especially during the dance part, I didn’t dance well at all and they just went on to the next person. I thought I’d failed for sure.

----What did you think when you passed?

I was really surprised. I thought am I really good enough, but I had passed so I wanted to do my best.

----Did you tell your friend that you passed the audition?

My best friend is a really good girl so I only told her. That girl really loves idols so she quizzed me on a lot of things like “Expressions are hard, so make sure you always smile at handshake events” and gave me a ton of advice. I was really thankful.

----What sort of person in AKB48 would you like to be?

Because my dancing isn’t very good, I’d like to become a better dancer.

----Are you good at singing?

I love to sing, but I’m not all that great at it.

----Your senpais in AKB48 do a lot of different work with singing and dancing and variety. What sort of work would you like to do?

I’d like to go on a variety show!

“I have no confidence in my selfies”

----I think it’s also possible that you might go abroad for work in the future. Is there a country you’d like to go to?

Recently some of my friends moved to Australia, so I’d like to go see them.

----What sort of woman would you like to be like in the future?

I’d like to be a slim person.

----You don’t think you’re slim right now?

Not at all, my face is really big, so I have no confidence when I take pictures of myself…

----Idols have to post a lot of selfies on SNS and other apps you know.

If I can edit the pictures then it’s fine.

Profile:
Team 8 Aichi Prefecture Representative
Utada Hatsuka
Born 8/7/2002
Nickname: Hattsu