[Event Report] ℃-ute, “a dream come true”. Nippon Budokan performance and Paris, France solo performance has been decided. “I’m happy since I will be eating happy udon this time!.”

2013/04/17

℃-ute held a release event for the announcement for their 21st single CD, “Crazy Kanzenna Otona”, at Ikebukuro Sunshine City. ℃-ute announced that they will perform a solo performances in France and at the Nippon Budokan. Performing at the Nippon Budokan has been a dream for the five members and they are extremely happy to have achieved this dream.

By the time the group had finished the first song, “Kanashiki Heaven”, all the members of the group including Maimi Yajima seemed to progress the event in a normal way.
Without any major trouble, the event was coming to an end. In order to show off the new song “Crazy Kannzenna Otona”, the members prepared in unison to perform the song. However, the song that was played was Tsunku♂ Producer’s version of “Crazy Kannzenna Otona”.

This was a surprise for everyone. It has been a tradition that whenever this song is played, it is when a member will be “graduating” from a unit or a new member was being added to a group. The members from ℃-ute could not hide their bewilderment. “What!? Mr. Tsunku!?” “What, what, what!?” “No one is “graduating” right? What’s going on!?” Everyone was anxious to hear what Tsunku♂’s message was going to say.

“Do you know what the significance of me talking to you guys is!?”

“Don’t make anyone “graduate!!” Is what everyone was thinking when they heard Tsunku♂’s voice. Slowly everyone was looking at Maimi Yajima, the oldest of the group, who had her eyes wide open as she was nervous to hear the rest Tsunku♂’s message.

“After a few rotations with the members, you five have been practicing and performing with all of your heart! However, I feel like you guys need to be stimulated in a new way, so I have a very important announced today.”

“No way! Is he going to dissolve our band!?” “No! Wait!” Since everyone was getting really nervous with where Tsunku♂ was going with this, Suzuki was holding Yajima’s hand as if to comfort her. Okai and Nakajima were very jittery looking very nervous as if they didn’t want to hear the rest of Tsunku♂’s message. Ogihara was the only one, with a clinched fist, trying to listen to Tsunku♂’s voice.

The news that the bands spring tour ＜Concert Tourー2013 Spring～Treasure Box～>’s final performance tickets being sold out, was only the beginning.

“We have been preparing wholeheartedly for this tour as well as ℃-ute’s special day on September 10th, 2013. However…”

As if to give the crowd a heart attack, Tsunku♂P pauses to heighten the anticipation. With this ℃-ute has come to the realization that this was going to be a “good” announcement!

This year we would like to do a….solo performance at the Nippon Budokan!!”

This moment the 2,000 fans gave a thunderous applause as they were as excited as the band to hear the good news! The members of ℃-ute cried and hugged each other out of excitement. Ogihara, who didn’t even cry when the band one the Japan Record Grand Prize was crying.

Many fans from the “female only section” were crying, simply by seeing the members of ℃-ute crying. Also Tsunku♂P announced that ℃-ute would be doing their first who abroad on July 5th ＜℃-ute Cutie Circuit ～Voyage a Paris～＞.

“It’s not a dream. Yes, compared to the difficult times after our major debut when we couldn’t even get any gigs, I am excited that we will be performing a solo live! Just the fact that we are going to play at the Yokohama Pacifico, we haven’t performed there for 5 years, was an amazing feat for us but, now to hear that we booked the Nippon Budokan!! It’s been our dream as a group, “Someday, we have to stand on the stage at the Budokan!” and so many fans and staff have supported us to achieve this goal! I am so glad that we can take everyone to the Budokan! Thank you so much!!” ── Maimi Yajima（℃-ute・Leader）

This event, including the surprise announcements, can be found on ℃-ute’s official YouTube channel.

During the press release the Okai was first to make a statement. “When I heard Tsunku♂’s voice, since the leader is 21 years old, I assumed that it was an announcement regarding her “graduation.” Especially because Tsunku♂ was obviously messing with everyone. Saying things like, “there have been a few who have graduated and a few new member in the past”, I was shocked! However, it was so excited to hear these two announcements at once and I can’t even tell you how excited and happy I am. Yajima said she is happy to finally be able to make everyone’s dream come true. Suzuki said that it was the “happiest surprise announcement that I’ve heard from Tsunku♂’s in all the ten years that we have been working with him!”

Nakajima commented on how thankful she was to her fans for all the support they have shown the group. “After we heard the announcement about our Budokan show, we went back stage to prepare to see our fans off. They gathered around us to congratulate us on achieving our goal! I knew at this moment that we can never let go of loyal fans who have supported us for so long!” Ogihara, who has not shown any tears, explained to the press with a smile, “I usually don’t cry, but when I was crying after the announcement I found out how good it feels to cry when you are happy!”

We were so busy with everything that we hadn’t really focused on achieving our goal of performing at the Nippon Budokan. It was the staff’s decision and passion to have “℃-ute focus more on their dance skills”, that changed the group. The group started to do physical training and increased the amount of dance practice. “Our staff has really let ℃-ute grow. They trained us and gave us the passion to be who we are now” says, Yajima. It was after they made these changes and adjustments that fans started to really like ℃-ute for who they are.

“There was a time when we performed at Forrest Hall in Nagoya, where there are four stories, when we couldn’t even fill the seats. Sometimes the 1st story wasn’t even full. Little by little we would sell out our tickets for the 1st story and during our last tour they finally opened the seats to the 4th floor! We were so excited and thought that ‘maybe’ we could perform at the Budokan sometime!” ── Maimi Yajima

Talks regarding visions and dreams about what kind of performance they want to do at the Budokan have taken over quite a bit of their conversations. “I want to ride a trolley at the Budokan”, “When we perform at the Budokan, let’s make it so that even people seated in the back can have fun! We want to be like real idols!” “I want to do acrobatic stunts in our show!” When asked at the press conference where they were going to eat Okai answered by saying “Ah, I think we’ll go out for udon! It would be nice to eat udon on the way home tonight. The last time we ate Udon, on September 10th, was on a very bad note and I’m glad that we can eat udon on such a happy occasion as this!” Next to Okai, Suzuki smiles as she is thinking about the udon she will be eating later on that evening.

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Lastly two of the girls shared very trivial information, which must be exciting for the fans, regarding the group. Okai shared that she made cheesecake and French toast for the group that day and that Ogihara has been making food for the group as well.

Official Website: http://www.helloproject.com/c-ute/index.html
Hello!Project Official Website: http://www.helloproject.com/
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/ocutechannel
Blog: http://gree.jp/c_ute
Saki Nakajima Blog: http://ameblo.jp/nakajima-saki-official/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Cute.Official
Twitter(Chisato Okai): http://twitter.com/okai_chisato