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From Hikaru → To Kota
Because Yabu knows a lot about all sports, I made him into a sports caster for this project, I thought I wanted to see what he would look like explaining things for real. Because I thought “He’ll definitely look really cool”.
I think all the readers know it too but, since Yabu knows a lot across not just sports but whole number of genres like world events and economics, it’s normal that sometimes even in conversation, his “knowledgeable side” slips out, and he’s totally like a news caster.
Looking back, maybe he’s been like that since I met him when we were kids. Because he often watched the news and studied about things around the world, I guess he just had a strong curiosity. So now he’s grown up, his areas of interest apart from sports have also broadened I guess.
Every now and then we do features like this for magazines looking back on our past together but, the thing I think over and over is “We’ve been together for a really long time”. When we were still Juniors, I would travel from Miyagi to Tokyo by shinkansen but, Yabu often stayed at the same hotel as me. It was really comforting. Even back then, Yabu was a kid but he was kind and perceptive of the people around him. At the time, I remember often playing and singing karaoke with Yabu and the A.B.C. members.
With his ability to be considerate and his knowledge, I think Yabu has the image of Hey! Say! JUMP’s “Mr Reliable”. But that’s not just an image, when JUMP are doing magazine interviews, he’s the one who takes the lead and brings everyone’s opinions together, that’s his position in the group. From the beginning JUMP have never had a leader so, I think there was a strong sense of responsibility like “I’m older so I have to be reliable”.
Before, when Yabu and I have talked to Popolo, he’s said definitely that “I realise that I have come to be something like a leader”. At the time of Hey! Say! JUMP’s formation, me and Yabu were definitely entrusted with the role of “bringing the group together”, and I think Yabu was aware that this was something that he had to carry out properly.
In the world, I think there are a lot of clever people but, as for Yabu, I guess his weapon is being able to “explain things easily”. Smart people talk in a complicated way and are bad at communicating things, right (lol). But Yabu can explain things politely and in a way that’s easy to understand no matter who he is talking to. Maybe it’s like his special ability. Maybe it’s good for people like Yabu to become school teachers (lol).
I think that working as a sports caster like he’s been pretending to today suits Yabu, I think I want to see this kind of role for Yabu for real. To make use of his special skills in his work, I want him to broaden his horizons as a sports caster.
Up till now, we’ve done all kinds of things together but, I guess from now on, if we were to do something again… That’s it. Of course, the thing I want to do the most is make a song. A song like “Tears and Smile”, where Yabu wrote the lyrics and I made the music, it would be nice if we could make a song with a new feeling again. If it’s a song we’ve made together, I think it would honestly be anything goes. An upbeat melody would be nice, or a ballad. Actually, I already wrote a song that I want Yabu write the lyrics for and I made a demo track. It’s a middle tempo piece but, Yabu listened to a little bit of it for me before and told me “This is good”. By expressing Yabu’s world view in the image of this song, I think it will become quite a good piece. Looking to the future, I guess I want everyone to be able to hear it too. When the time is right (lol).
The things I want to do with Yabu in our off time, I wonder if there is anything left after all this time (lol)… Something like going to the sauna (lol)? It’s become Yabu’s latest craze, since he goes a lot. I don’t really go that much, but if Yabu invites me I think “I guess I’ll give it a go”. Ah, it’s a date that strengthens the bonds between men, it’s not bad sweating together somewhere apart from the stage (lol).
Popolo October ’18
HSJパン屋 