[2020.12] FC Video on ARAFES 2020 Reflections - Part 1

[barbosa2007]

In late December, Arashi posted an FC video where they reflected on the different aspects of ARAFES 2020!

The translation is 13 pages long on my Word document so far so I'll be splitting the translation in a series of posts.

In Part 1, the members discuss the song rankings based on the fans' votes and their thoughts on dancing to Love Situation.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

Sho: We'd like everyone to talk about ARASHI Day and the National Stadium!

Jun: To put it bluntly, (we're filming this) on November 6th.

Sho: You're being really blunt!

Nino: He's not holding back!

Jun: So to us, it felt like it just ended.

<Thoughts about the Song Rankings>

Aiba: As you'd expect, certain songs still prevailed!

Ohno: As you'd expect, "still" is pretty amazing...

Aiba: "still..." is amazing! And "Love Situation" too!

Ohno: There's definitely those two.

Nino: I wonder why? [T/N: Me too, Nino]

Sho: That's what you'd think, right? We talked about it in Aradio too, didn't we? What really surprised me about the fans' perspective was; Kikuchi Fuma couldn't watch Arafes, so he came to my house and watched it, I think many fans reacted the same way; when the 1st song "Love So Sweet" started playing, they'd say, "This was the same song they opened their first Kokuritsu concert with in 2008."

Fuma went, "This is so emotional!" and then said, "Love So Sweet is in 9th place!?" His reaction was, "What's going to happen after this?"

Aiba: Because there were other songs which ranked higher than "Love So", right?

Jun: What a wonderful audience~!

Nino: It was something like the Top 3.

Sho: It's so fun to watch it with him! "So that's how the fans think!" For us, we'd review the whole ranking and say, "Oh, 'still...' is going strong, or 'Love Situation' is pretty powerful, so is "5 x something"..." But that was his reaction to the opening. "Love So is in 9th place...?"

Aiba: I want to know what Kikuchi Fuma thinks should be in 1st to 3rd place.

Sho: If he were to vote for the songs?

Aiba: I'd want to know.

Sho: Not just Fuma, I think our kouhai who have listened to our songs when they were students or backup dancers for us, their rankings may change too.

Jun: We first performed Arafes in 2012, didn't we? When we did Arafes 2013, maybe because only a year had passed, the rankings didn't change after all!

Conversely, when I think about my favorite artistes, I might listen to their new songs with new memories associated with them, but if that doesn't happen, the songs which I like don't really change.

Aiba: That's true!

Jun: The memories associated with the song gradually build up, so the songs which you love do remain your favorite songs. Unless something drastic happens. I feel that pretty strongly.

Nino: The unchangeable zone really does remain unchanged.

Aiba: We had some new songs too, right?

Jun: Stuff like “Turning Up”, yes?

Sho: I feel this each time a new song ends up being in 1st place in a ranking like this, it really is the best honor one can have in this job.

Jun/Nino: It does make us happy.

Jun: We're honored that (fans) want to listen or watch the performance of the new song.

Nino: They're reacting to it!

Sho: Ohno-san, was there any unexpected songs in the ranking for you? (laughs) I remembered something, can I say it?

Ohno: Uh huh.

Sho: During rehearsals, we wondered what the coupling songs would be. Matsujun was earnestly planning the lighting and all with the staff, and we wondered what coupling songs would rank in.

Sho: And (Ohno) kept murmuring during rehearsals, "It's 'still...' right? I just know it's 'still...'."
"See? Told you it's 'still...'."

Ohno: Then the song would start playing, right?

Sho: During rehearsals, yes?

Ohno: As you'd expect, it left a strong impression! But the fans like "Love Situation" for the song and the dance, right?

Aiba: It includes the choreography, I think?

Nino: I think there are fans who want to hear the line, "Chikadzukitai" (I want to get closer).

Jun: Nah, that's just a TINY part of the song!

Nino: No, no, that's not it!

Jun: It's like a sprinkle of salt!

Sho: No, for us, we want to get closer to but we can't!

Nino: That's right!

Sho: No matter how many times we do it, right?

Nino: That's what the fans want to see!

Aiba: They sure do!

Jun: There're many parts to the song that fans like such as the 2-3 split in the dance and lyrics. As a whole, fans like the song.
Aiba: It’s seriously tiring to perform though!

Jun: It is. We were exhausted from performing it now, but we're probably tired since we started performing it in 2007!

Aiba: It's not like we aged or anything, right?

Jun: Our stamina didn't decrease. We've always barely scraped by.

Sho: It's a dance number, yes?

Nino: Simply put, it tires one out.

Ohno: We keep dancing throughout.

Jun: For mid-tempo songs like “Boku Ga Boku No Subete” and “Yume ni Kakeru”, and maybe “Subarashiki Sekai” to rank among the top songs, it left a deep impression on me.

Before we decided to do Parts 1 and 2, we wanted to perform one concert, right? As we’re thinking about creating a single concert, we felt that there were lots of mid-tempo songs!

Aiba: The concert would end up sounding very mellow.

Jun: Yeah, I thought, “It’s so mellow!” and I agonized so much over it. So I had that impression. And all those songs are so nice.

Aiba: They are! I’m sure the fans wanted to immerse in those feelings!

Jun: I suppose so!

Nino: So for us, “Count On Me” would be a new song, right?

Ohno: The choreography was new too.

Aiba: “Sugar” was so cool!

Nino: It sure is!

Jun: It’s pretty amazing that it’s popular. It made us happy.

Sho: That’s true. The special effects video footage*, which hadn’t been seen elsewhere, was pretty memorable. I guess the fans also wanted to watch the dance?

[T/N: The Untitled tour performance of “Sugar” made use of a 360 degree camera, and a 3 dimensional camera that was used in soccer relays. During the Untitled Arashi-Kai, Sho related a story of how Jun asked to speak to Sho’s junior to find out more about it.]

Aiba: I would think so!

Jun: I like the choreography a lot! It feels good to dance to it, right?

Aiba: It does!

Sho: Like what happened back then, we definitely struggled during that last block. (Everyone does the moves together.) We kept practising it, didn’t we? That being said, I dreamt that I messed up the “Count on me” choreography around 3 days ago.

[Sho does the move he messed up.]

Aiba: The concert had already ended by then, right? To dream about it even after the concert had ended is pretty amazing…

Ohno: Even though it ended!

Sho: All by myself—

[Sho shows how he messed up the move.]

Sho: The dance ended like this, even though I was waiting for everyone to come.

Nino: You could have done the move multiple times!

Sho: I guess I must have been driven into a corner!

Jun: It must be because you’re still living in Arafes, right?

Sho: Aaah, I’m so happy!

Aiba: That must be nice!

Sho: If this is a dream, I don’t want to wake up!

Aiba: That’s so nice!