Interview with Cheeky Parade

10/11/2015 Author: Anthony Translator: Polina

Cheeky Parade chats with JaME before their Moshi Moshi Nippon gig in France.

Formed in February 2012, nine-member idol group Cheeky Parade is all about being a saucy and rambunctious entertainment parade. The colourfully dressed girls chat with JaME before their Moshi Moshi Nippon gig in France.

Can you tell us what happened since our last interview in December?

Sekine Yuna: We’ve celebrated our third anniversary, and we’ve mostly been concentrating on one-man shows and other live activities. In May, we played a livehouse₁ tour called Cheeky Boot Camp, and as the name suggests, we were training our bodies together with the fans all around Japan. Because of that, we grew stronger and were able to meet fans from many different places. We performed a one-man show in June, and as we’ve done a nationwide tour, we’ve had more chances to meet everyone around the country than ever before.

_{1 Livehouses are small venues without seating.}

It's your first time in France. Have you had time to do any sightseeing?

Yuriya Suzuki: We arrived at the Charles de Gaulle airport yesterday at about 4pm and we went to the hotel by bus, and we went to have dinner at an Italian restaurant. We ate pizza, lasagne and other tasty food. On our last day, we’ll probably have some time for sightseeing, so I hope we can go around and see Paris’s sights with the members.

This afternoon you will participate in a fan meeting. Could you tell us more about it?

Cheeky Parade: We will show everyone calligraphy, which is a part of Japanese culture. We will use brushes and ink to write letters. It’s a unique Japanese practice, so we want to show it to everyone in Paris.

What are your expectations for your concert tomorrow?

Rino Shimazaki: This is our first time playing in France, but there are people in France who’ve become our fans, and they’ve been collecting signatures for us to come to France and making videos telling us about how they want Cheeky Parade to visit their country, so they’ve been looking forward to this show. We want to give our all so as not to betray they expectations! We will do our best.

This year at @JAM Expo, the unit AnMiRan was created for the occasion. Can Mizorogi Seran tell us about it?

Mizorogi Seran: @JAM Expo is a festival where many Japanese idols come together, and there were 122 units performing. I took part in the three-person unit AnMiRan, which was created for this occasion and only existed for a limited period of time. We were active for the three months preceding @JAM Expo, participating in different events so that many people would come and enjoy @JAM Expo, where we performed for the last time. On the day, I performed twice in AnMiRan and twice in Cheeky Parade, and also did an MC. It was a great experience.

Your last single was released on July 15th. Can you tell us about it?

Marin Yamamoto: We released the double A-side single M.O.N.ST@R / Colorful Starlight, which is our fifth single. In the chorus for M.O.N.ST@R, there is a part which goes “Many times, many hundreds of times, even if your voice dries out, scream ‘We are number one!’” Since we started, we’ve had the aim to go above the idol scene and become number-one, and we’ve channelled our determination to become number-one into this song.

When you came to the USA, you created a music clip from videos filmed there. Are you planning the same for France?

Asami Watanabe: This time, we don’t have any plans for a new music video. Last time, we were going to do a shoot and as a part of it, we were sightseeing. This time, there are no plans for a shoot. Instead, we’ll all be taking pictures and creating memories of France which we will be able to look back on.

Suzuki Yuriya: Unfortunately we don’t have plans to shoot a video in France, but we want to come to France as well, and it’s our first time both in France and in Europe, so we want to see many places as a preview!

You will also participate in the festival Japan Expo USA this year. Can you tell us a bit about it?

Shimazaki Rino: It’s our first time in Los Angeles, and we will be performing on three days: on the pre-opening night, and the two main days. We would like to leave our mark as Cheeky Parade on this occasion.

You appeared in New York last year, are now in France and are going to Los Angeles in October. Can we hope for a world tour from you, or a tour with other iDOL Street groups?

Suzuki Mariya: We don’t have any such plans at this time, but we want to fly all over the world and have big ambitions, so yes, we want to do this. And when this happens, we want to return to France once again as Cheeky Parade.

Finally, do you have a message for JaME’s readers?

Sekine Yuna: Even when we are performing in Japan, we have been receiving a lot of warmth and support from fans in France, and finally now having been able to come to France we are very grateful. Now that we are here, in our performance we want to say a big “thank you” to our fans who have been supporting us even more for the times that we couldn’t meet. We want to become a group that you’d want to support whether you are in Japan, France or any other country, even if we can’t meet.

We want people who’ve supported us until now to continue giving us their warm support. For people who have found out about us on this occasion, I think that we’re a group that you’ll like if you give our music videos a try, so please keep an eye out for us. We will do our best to spread Cheeky Parade all over the world.

JaME would like to thank Cheeky Parade and Moshi Moshi Nippon for this interview.

The music video for M.O.N.ST@R and Colorful Starlight can be watched below.