“I was thinking whatever results I get, I will never cry on the stage last year, since I cried too much in the previous two elections. Especially I had an embarrassed experience after 2nd election because I saw my face frequently on TV crying so hard as I was vexed at the result. I thought if I were smiling, they wouldn’t have used my faces for their broadcasting.”
The speech of Mayuyu, a girl as if she came out from 2D world, bare her soul as a young girl. That was one of the most touching scene among all the dramatic scenes from the AKB’s elections.
“Please stop talking about it! It wss so embarrassing! I don’t know her! Who is that girl? I don’t know. I pretend to be an other person. She is not me.”
Waved good bye to tears, she was standing on the stage of the 3rd election with a smile. In the speech she firmly said “I am not shaken by numbers.” But what was behind the words were vexation that she ended up at 5th place again, and “the wall” she felt between her and top-4 members.
“I felt however hard I tried, it’s impossible to overtake them at that time. So I still don’t think I will increase my rank drastically this year. It kind of mean I want to keep my position but don’t want to rank down. I’ve done all my efforts just to keep my ranking.”
But it’s quite doubtful that her remark is her 100% honest feeling. It rather mean that this humble words are what express her pride as an idol. Her burning fighting spirit hasn’t yet disappeared.
What will be the strong tailwind for her in this election is her starring Drama Saba-Dol, and the release of her solo debut single, Syncro Tokimeki, which was the theme song of the Drama.
“I was given the chance to make a solo debut, and I think this helped me grow, or i should say I feel it’s nice that I could find what I am lacking. By seeing the world outside of AKB48, I realized how much ability I have, how AKB’s name has helped me, and it was really good experience. It also made me have a feeling that some day I want to be big enough that people recognize me by the name of Mayu Watanabe without AKB’s name put on it.”
In addition she is starring Anime AKB0048 after she won the one of 9 slots for Seiyu Senbatsu, allowing her to set off her career as Seiyu which she’s long been dreaming of.
“I’ve long since wanted to do Seiyu, but i’m havind hard time since it’s so difficult. In the Anime, my alter ego is voiced by Yukari Tamura san… it’s like a dream!! All staffs are also famous creators, so I feel much pressure as our job is to animate the characters and stories they make.”
After the debut as a member of team B, 5 years have passed and she turned 18.
“But I’m still immature for my real age. I’m still a child. I want to grow older mentally and be a kind person who is able to care about people around me. The same is true to my job. I have so many things left to do in my singing as well as acting. I have to improve and blush up myself in order to accomplish something, because I’m a perfectionist in part. I don’t know about the future, but I want to always keep the beginner’s mind. To keep it, I try looking at my juniors carefully as possible. Seeing them working hard reminds me of the period right after I joined AKB. And… I often listen to the song called 初日 / Syonichi. This song also help me remember the feeling I had when I joined AKB.”
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