Rino Sashihara of AKB48 held the event titled Talk show hosted by Sea Lion and Sashiko to commemorate the release of her solo debut single Soredemo Sukidayo at Sunshine city Aquarium in Tokyo on 26th May.
Total 970 fans who won the lottery are invited to this show held twice a day, total 4 times for 2 days.
Tough the sea lions can dance to Heavy Rotation, guess who is her Oshi-men in this aquarium? Sashko said “I want to own a sun-fish!! I just saw him inside the aquarium. He is 5 meters long huge!! (actually he is 2.5 meters long). He is huge!!” We are completely taken aback with her sudden Sun-Fish-Oshi remark.
She performed the stage with two sea lions, Hacchi and Cuu, both are 13 y/o females. She took memorial photos and performed songs from her debut single together with them. Though this event has been materialized by her own request that she loves animals, she confessed “Actually I don’t like animals so much… but I wanted to hold “Sea Lion show“…” Though her remarks made us a little perplexed, after watched the sea lions’ dance performance of Heavy Rotation, she raised a joyful chants, “Awesome~~!! This creature is too awesome to be true!!” “I love sea lions!! I’m so impressed with this collaboration with them!”
Her favorite thing recently is “Sleeping” she said during the question session with fans. “(But) I can’t sleep well lately.” Everyone thought she’s been too busy with activities for solo act and AKB48. But when asked how long she slept last night, she answered “I slept for 7 hours last night.” While everyone was astonished that she does have average length of sleep, Sashiko added that she wants to sleep for 9-10 hours.
When asked what animal she would want to be, “I guess I would sleep ridiculously a lot. I don’t go out frequently, so it may be a Sloth, but if I can, I want to be an animal called “Sashihara”, a newly discovered animal.” she answered.
“If I have an opportunity to release my second solo single, I want to hold an event like this that I can get closer to fans.” She mentioned Sun-Fish, or Walrus as her possible next collaborators.
When asked about her impression on her ranking in the early result of AKB48 27th Single Senbatsu Sousenkyo, she humbly said “First of all, I’m surprised like “Eeeeeee~~~~!!” with the fact that fans actually voted for me. I want to keep this position as possible…” Though she has kept being humble as always, reporters suggested that her fans are expecting further step up of her. Sashiko quipped “Do you remember Yuko Oshima-san’s remark “Votes are fans’ expression of love.” AkiP jokingly said to me “Votes for you are fans’ expression of compassion.”… So I think plenty of votes for me are from those people who think thye want Sashiko to hand on.”
After the interview with the press, she regretfully said “I’m really sorry that I can’t make exciting remarks… I think it would get more interesting if I speak out “I’ll become a center!!”…” as she was bowing to reporters.