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From Ryosuke → To Keito
For this Keito I thought of the theme “Let’s go swimming in Winter”. Doesn’t it seem fun to go diving in the giant tank at the aquarium and take photos with the fish. Keito wanted to prepare for this too, and it seemed fitting for the first edition of this new feature (lol).
But, that seemed a little too tough on him so, the theme we did this time is “Never produced before Keito”. Why did you do “Never produced before”? I guess the part of him that is always conscious of his surroundings made me think “I want to produce that”. When he’s doing interviews he becomes like “I have to speak”, it’s completely different to when he talks to us, and whenever he’s having his photo taken he always ends up pulling a posed face, he really hates showing his natural expressions. So for this feature I thought I want to expose “Keito just as he is”.
If we were to take it to the extreme then I would stand him in front of the camera with no make-up, un-styled hair and clothes like the kind he normally wears in private. Or even make it the first photo shoot of the day and have Keito without his make up on as he arrives at work. The fans have never seen this kind of Okamoto Keito before, right? So this is what I showed you this time (lol).
Keito is a free person who isn’t tied down by things. And, he has an unexpectedly stubborn part too. This part of him shows its self from time to time in his work and in private. But, if I go into detail about that stubbornness then I’d be saying some negative things towards Keito (lol). If I say just one little thing the it’d be “He doesn’t listen to a thing I say”. For example, I say “Keito, don’t do that. It’ll be bad if you do that.” When I say this he’s the type who says “Yep, gotcha!” while going ahead and doing it anyway. When I say “It’ll be bad if you do that” then he’ll definitely do it anyway in secret and hide it from me. But, because I see everything, I always find out in the end (lol). That “idiot” part of Keito is one of his good points, and it becomes a cute part of him too.
Keito’s good point is his kindness to others. The public see the image of “Kind Keito” and I don’t think they’re wrong. 10 years have passed since our debut, and I think the things Keito thinks about and his personality have changed little by little. He’s generally the worrying type that stresses over things, but that part of him hasn’t really changed (lol).
But, compared to how he was before, his awareness of “moving forward on his own” has increased. At the time of our debut, JUMP was full of senpai for me too but, for Keito who became a member with almost no experience, I think he was filled with anxiety from the pressure even more than I was. Singing, dancing, speaking, he couldn’t do anything, at that time, rather than thinking “I want to do things together” Keito was frantically just trying to keep up with the other members. Even though that’s how things were, it seems like he was really frustrated that he couldn’t do anything himself. He used to go hide and cry a lot (lol).
Even though Keito had this kind of special start, I think he’s become able to show his individuality by speaking English and through his musical activities like playing the guitar in concerts and writing songs. Especially when he had the chance during our 10 Year Anniversary, all on his own he asked them directly, “Please let me write a song for JUMP to sing together”, in that moment he put his whole heart into drawing up his courage. In the end they gave it the ok, and Keito wrote the music to go with the lyrics all the members wrote and “H.our Time” was born but, he was definitely the happiest that he wrote the song. I thought that he saw JUMP as a whole and was able to produce this. So, from now on I want him to use that sense to make more songs for JUMP and solo songs that he wants to sing.
If I were to say something strict to Keito, I guess it would be something like “give it even more effort”. Because if he had time to play in private he would, and I think he definitely still does now but, he’s using that time more for practicing dancing and stuff. But it’s not just about his private time, but also not wasting the free time he has at work too, if he takes the initiative and says “Can I do something?” then I think he will become a more charming man. I guess that “something” is naturally something that will be useful for JUMP’s work, and obviously it’s “something” that will help Keito grow up even more. There’s not a specific “something” that I can say at the moment but, maybe Keito is already taking notice of these things.
Keito is actually an ideas man that comes up with all kinds of plans. It’s not something that has been shown yet but, we didn’t know about it either, it’s definitely his hidden talent. I think that part of him will slowly start to show and I want him to make the appeal. On “Itadaki High JUMP” too, he challenges location shoots that push his body, and from now on he’ll push on forwards as the members’ representative (lol)! From now on, if there is a chance for me and Keito to challenge a new “something” together, then I definitely want to leave the producing up to him. Not just music but, filming would be good too. “What kind of expression will he have me make in his Keito view of the World?”, I have high hopes for something like that. And with these profound words, I also want to try going travelling again (lol). If we’re with Hey! Say! 7 then I think it’ll be nice no matter where we go again. Keito, from now until forever let’s keep doing our best together!
Popolo April ‘18
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