Imaizumi Yui (Zuumin) / Keyakizaka46 1st Generation

Thank you for the interview! Very entertaining!

Perhaps they should do some type of promotion with her and chain restaurants like how SKE48 did CoCo Ichibanya. Maybe they could replace the typical half-rice, half-curry plating in favor of a "helter-skelter" look with a sprinkle of floor dust on top as her tokusei flavoring.

 

Really interesting interview. (Thanks for the translation!) Kinda get the feeling that she wants to work really hard to get to center but at the same time is battling against what she knows [that comment about choosing to be a supporting role on purpose]. Would be interesting to see how she'd handle being center if she gets the role in the future.

 

Yeah, it bothers me too. I mean, I'm not saying she's necessarily a bad person for being confident and wanting to strive to "be on top," a lot of other 48 group members say the same thing ("I don't have friends in AKB because everyone is a rival to me"). But it's just not a personality trait that really meshes with me...

I hunted down the interview that Imaizumi did with Uemura that they refer to in the interview, and there's just such a contrast between her answer and Uemura's. It's a personal thing but, like Neru, I like the idea of teammates working together for the sake of the group, rather than stewing resentful feelings for the others in the background (which might not be what she's doing, but it feels that way to me).

Spoiler: That part in the Uemura +Imaizumi interview

今泉「自分はセンターの隣とか後ろにいるような存在なのかなと思って、諦めかけていた部分もありました･･････。でも、嫌なんです、いつまで経ってもずっと隣りとか。だから、いつか平手（友梨奈）を超えたいです。

ーーその心意気すばらしいと思います！　上村さんも、そんなに思いつめない方がいいと思いますよ。

上村「はい。3列目のメンバーと『ここから頑張っていこう！』ってみんなで言っています。」

I think sometimes she may just be too intense for me. She seems to really be pushing herself extra hard for some reason. Maybe it has something to do with her past failures as an idol? At her age this might be her last chance.
That said I still find her really charming (maybe it's Yuichanzu and our mutual love of food?) and I'm still not able to dislike her. Still, I'm a bit wary of her.

I also noticed that and I felt awkward about it. At first I thought to myself, "is he trying to make fun of her?" It felt a bit too much haha.

She said she lost 20 pounds (9kg) when she decided to audition for Keyakizaka. I'm not sure how much time passed between "deciding to audition" and the auditions, but that's quite a lot of weight to drop in (what I'm assuming is) a short period of time. I don't have a problem at all with dieting, it's normal even for those who are already thin, but (from past blog posts and interviews) she gives me the impression that she has an unhealthy (obsessive?) relationship with food. I mean, some of the girls talk about how they diet and exercise and they seem to have a healthy attitude about it, but her weight and the prospect of gaining weight seems to be on her mind a lot. She mentions it a lot. I think another member on this forum noticed her attitude toward food was a bit off as well...

Adding to that, extreme mood-swings are a symptom of eating disorders, so what she said in her interview makes me wonder about her.

But then I'm probably just worrying for nothing.

 

great expectations for this one... don't think she could disappoint if she tried

 

In her blog post for Tuesday, Zuumin tells us that her individual PV was recorded at Hebara Beach, in Katsuura City, Chiba. And she gives us a couple of photos:



She says she particularly likes that first photo.

EDIT: And now we finally have pics of Zuumin together with Saitou Kyouko ("Kyonko") of Hiragana keyaki, who claimed on the first day of her first Showroom audition appearance that she was a friend of Zuumin's. Someone got her to stop mentioning that, but she blogged a few days ago that she knew Zuumin because they had been on the same stage two years ago. In fact, they were apparently at a Sony school for aspiring singers then. In any case, here are a couple of photos from Kyonko's blog. Haven't seen any mention of Kyonko on Zuumin's blog yet, though:



I think the first pic shows their real height relation: Kyonko is listed at 155cm to Zuumin's admitted 151 (she inflated that figure earlier). But Kyonko seems extremely thin in the second pic. Kyonko is just about exactly a year older than Zuumin. She is 18 and in college now. I have often worried that Kyonko's presence will seem a threat to Zuumin, since she is a trained singer who is slimmer and maybe smarter (from KeyaKake, it seems that Zuumin and other members think of Zuumin as not so smart). And then Kyonko made things a bit more difficult by claiming a friendship with Zuumin that may not have been as close as she implied. Hopefully these are just wild imaginings.

 

My beautiful Zuumin. I really hope she'll have one day a solo song

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can't forget her face when eating the spicy food or get prank on the hunted house
she's so adorable and cute at those moment

 

I as happy to see these two photos from over the weekend of Zuumin with Saitou Kyouko of Hiragana Keyaki. As I wrote a couple of posts ago, there might have been some coolness between them. But these two photos (one from each of their blogs) seem quite friendly...as far as I can tell, lol:

 

Zuumin had a highly successful handshake event on Saturday, as usual. The line for Zuumin and Nijika folded back on itself five times, at one point. But the picture that has made the biggest impact is this amazing and rather frightening one. Another skill. Speaking of skill, some commenters say they think she was singing Bob Dylan without a back-up voice track at the mini-live, and call this another step in her growing professionalism.



EDIT: Now we find out (from her blog) that Zuumin's elder brother (the one nearest in age to her, I believe) actually came to the handshake event and lined up to see her. He had come to previous handshake events, but had lined up to see Kobayashi Yui. "It was a weird feeling to end up shaking hands with my own brother!" she said.

I haven't yet been able to figure out how to post this Imgur .gifv file here, but you do want to see this, so follow the link: http://imgur.com/a/lwvN6#TwbXunY
One of the nicest images of Zuumin I've seen.

 

I've just posted my translation of Imaizumi's (group) interview in this month's Nikkei Entertainment! You can read the article here Suzumoto Miyu, Shida Manaka, Imaizumi Yui: A change of scenery as they experience new positions for the first time.

I gotta say I love her idea about the Keyakizaka convenience store!! Maybe they can sell sweets based on Suzumoto and Aoi's baking creations

 

A gif I made of Imaizumi rolling her eyes at the accompanying comedian in the latest episode of keyakitte. She's such a bundle of attitude!

Spoiler: The GIF

 

lol I had noticed that she did that too. maybe she was annoyed with what they wanted them to do? she had said before that she's bad at hiding her emotions on her face aha.

 

I had another look at that bit in the show and thought she was just glancing very quickly up at the animal, maybe when it moved. It didn't seem like a disgusted eye-roll to me.

But she may have reacted disgustedly when she read the interview with Aki-P in Nikkei Entertainment. He went on about Hirate's star quality, then added that there were other members of interest, but mentioned only Berika (ponkotsu but you can't dislike her), Risa (cool beauty), and Neru (mysterious charm). I've always thought that Zuumin was next in line at centre, but maybe Aki-P is looking for some special personal magnetism (in his eyes) more than for ability or popularity.

 

I really hope she stays in the first row. Keyakizaka needs besides Techi another member who is good in HS and has a good singing voice. Just like Yukirin

Anyway. Let's wait until the next single. Then we'll see

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Well, I didn't take it as she was disgusted, but more like she thought the situation are silly. Either way, I don't think Imaizumi is next in line for center personally. Nor would I want to see her as center. Although Berika is my favorite I don't think she should be center either. Perhaps it would be best to know the direction before considering this question. For me, it is hard to visualize at the moment.

 

I'm not sure which show it was, but I do remember the question.

I liked how she sort of deflected it and gave what I considered to be a vague answer... Straightforward answers to questions like that could lead to unintended tensions amongst the members which would be unhealthy for the group.

I can only hope that Zuumin doesn't let that Aki-P response dishearten her because she wasn't mentioned. Although, I would be surprised if she's not disappointed.

Personally I think (hope, to be more precise) that he didn't feel the need to mention her, maybe trying to put other members into the spotlight a bit since she has Yui-Chans... I doubt that unit would have been formed if her potential wasn't acknowledged from the beginning...(Kobayashi too maybe?)

 

Personally, I think the Yui-chans are both centre material, as far as singing/dancing talent is concerned -- and they are certainly both popular with fans. But can I picture them being the face of the group? I'm not sure. I doubt we will get a chance to find out very soon, since Hirate is still rising in popularity with the outside world. Aki-P talked about "a resource" (素材) like Hirate making creators think of more and more ways to use her.

I do think it's possible that Aki-P not mentioning Zuumin didn't mean she couldn't become centre, however. She's clearly right there to be used if Hirate either gets tired or doesn't have time for everything. She might have been so obvious that he didn't feel he needed to mention her. Might.

I saw a Japanese post somewhere suggesting that the next single could come out in late November, and the senbatsu could be announced as early as next Sunday. How do you choose a front line when there are so many possible candidates, including all the first two lines and some of the third? Koike, Nanako and Uemura are three who have champions among Japanese fans. But to me there isn't the slightest doubt that Zuumin will be there, at least. She and Hirate are the only ones I am sure of, however.

But at the moment, Zuumin isn't really a rival for Hirate. She wouldn't want to hear it, but I think her rival in the short-medium term is actually Neru, as a rival for the status of #2 in the group. But in the recent live, I did notice that only three of the seven numbers they chose to do involved Neru; perhaps she's going to be doing more with Hiragana now.

 

Techi is something else, undeniably so... The other girls are developing quite nicely, but I think she currently has no real competition except for maybe herself. Has there been any news on whether management plans a static or a mostly rotating centre like Nogi?

The frontline for the next single is something I'm eager to see, we might even see Neru pushed up although that will depend on what the plan for Hiragana is. I hope The Cool, Mona-Risa, doesn't get dropped though. Don't want Zuumin to fall back either, but there's so many I think could do well with a spot in the front!

The next single should reveal a lot about where this group is headed in terms of what the management is planning, should be interesting to see... Until then, we can only speculate and watch for who is getting pushed and such