I'm new to the forum and I got an email saying I'd be kicked out if I didn't start posting. xD Since Ohno is my favorite Arashi member, I thought I'd start with him.

The following information is from Arashi Goto (I think it came out last year - how would you describe the nature of this publication? It was like a magazine with all their information on it, their quotes, etc.). There was a section called Ohno's 10,000 Character Interview or something, where he talks about himself. I'll just summarize and add my comments.


- We all know that Ohno is a good artist. Well, he started drawing in 3rd grade, thanks to "Dragonball." He had a friend who was into it as well, so they'd always be competitive trying to outdo each other with Dragonball drawings.

- He says his parents raised him liberally. They never told him to study or anything.

- We know that Ohno is *extremely* close to his mom. When he goes home late at night, she is always up waiting for him. He sometimes texts her saying "You can go to sleep," but she always waits for him. He asked her why and she replied that he might not like it if he comes home late from work and the house is all dark. This really touched him, because she also has to work the next day at 5AM. To Ohno, she is more like a friend than a parent.

- His mom came to the Johnny's audition with him. At the audition, it surprised him to see Katori-kun (Katori Shingo from SMAP); he was familiar with him because his sister liked him. Everyone started dancing at the audition, but Ohno stood in the back and didn't dance. -_- Instead, he waved at his mom and said hi. Then Johnny-san spotted him and yelled, "What are you doing? Come up to the front and dance!" So Ohno danced and Johnny said to him, "you've got good rhythm."

So since then, he started going to the lesson 1 day a week. There were about 50 people starting out, but later on, it was reduced to only 4 of them. One of them was Machida Shingo (from another Johnny's unit, Musical Academy). With Machida, Ohno danced as hard as he could. Since then, he was always together with Machida.

*A little note about Machida and Musical Academy - you HAVE to check out their stuff. It's simply amazing.

- Ohno's first gig as a junior was at Tokio's concert in Budokan. He heard the "Johnny's cheer" and freaked out. It was so loud, he couldn't believe it was coming from people! He even wanted to go home because he was so freaked out.

- Initially, he wasn't interested in being in the entertainment industry at all, or doing dramas. But dancing kept him interested. It was the only thing he wanted to excel in.

- He realized that if he wanted to go to Kyoto, he'd have to stay there at least 1/2 year. He volunteered to go. He wanted to escape the situation he was in at the time. Younger, newer juniors were coming in to Johnny's and he kept getting pushed back, as the newer ones got popular. He thought to himself, "Why? I'm better than them!" He had heard that he could be the main star if he went to Kyoto, so he didn't hesitate to go.

*This part really touched me. Being a junior in Johnny's was such a competitive thing. It's hard to imagine someone as talented as Ohno getting pushed to the back, but I guess that's just how it was. I'm glad he made the choice to go to Kyoto even though he suffered as hell. He is a better person because of that experience.

- His mom was happy and supportive of his decision to go to Kyoto. He quit high school after just three days of starting. He walked out with Machida. His parents didn't say anything. They just asked him, "Is this it?" and he said, "Yes." He had to quit school because if he hadn't, he couldn't go to Kyoto.

*Here is another thing I admire about Ohno. Note that he said he *wasn't* really interested in being in the entertainment industry. But because he wanted to excel in dance, he decided to quit high school. He gave it all to be the best, even though he didn't know how long the passion would last or where he would end up.

- Life in Kyoto was hard. He had to perform 5 times a day on stage. At least during summer, it was okay because there were people. But in fall, there were only about 50 people in a theatre that could hold 1,000 people. He wondered why he had to be doing this. He sometimes cried because he wanted to go back to Tokyo, but his colleagues helped him out because they were all on the same boat.

- If there was an opportunity to dance solo, he volunteered even if it meant taking himself away from Tokyo and going to Kyoto. I think from this, we can see that Ohno is actually quite ambitious and wants to do justice to his own skills. He said he was satisfied with the way danced at the solo of "Kyo to Kyo" - he doesn't think he can dance as well now as he did back then during his solo "Cool." *Question: I wonder if he reprised this solo at Spin Arashi concert? The one where he was wearing the red outfit and singing "Hey mistah~"

- About 2 years into his life in Kyoto, he thought about quitting. He wanted to start drawing again. He picked up some skills from the makeup artist and thought to himself that when he goes back to Tokyo, he will quit Johnny's Jimusho and start anew, something related to art. At this point, he had already danced to his satisfaction.


*Okay I need to take a break.

- continued from the previous post

- Ohno told Johnny's that he wanted to quit. But for some reason, he ended up being in "MASK" (stageplay starring Domoto Koichi from Kinki Kids, from January '99 to February '99), and also "Playzone" (summer play Shonentai - way way senpai group from Johnny's - does every summer).

- Then from there, it was straight to becoming Arashi. He really hesitated, but since it was his last chance, he decided to just ride this wave. After the initial debut press conference in Hawaii, he participated in the Junior Concert in October ('99).

From there, as they were introducing themselves, it went like this:

"Sakurai Sho- " *WAHHHHHHH* (all the people screaming)
"Matsumoto Jun - " *WAHHHHHHH*
"Ohno Satoshi - " *... whhhhattt? Who is this person?

Ohno wanted to get off the stage ASAP. He realized that his time spent in Kyoto had made him less exposed compared to the other members. He became quite desperate at this point. Since the other 4 members had so much more exposure thanks to their TV appearances, he knew he had to try harder. He wrote back to his fan letters and such. He knew that Arashi was somewhat getting popular because their debut song, "A.Ra.Shi," was #1, but he didn't know if he *himself* was popular.

He started having negative thoughts at this point, because people didn't know who he was, or they were saying "How come it's not Tackey *Takizawa Hideaki from Tackey & Tsubasa* that's in Arashi?" He started wondering if it would be okay for him to be part of Arashi.

- But it brought comfort to be with Arashi members from the beginning. When the 5 of them were together, it really upped the atmosphere.

- When the first Arashi concert came, he wondered if anyone would be holding his uchiwa (*the hand-held fan with member's face on it that fans hold at concerts). He was relieved and happy to find that there were just as many uchiwa for him as there were for other members.

..... Okay, the rest of his interview in this section focuses on his stageplay experience with Shonentai and such... which I don't have the energy to summarize. - - ;; So I'll just skip to the part where he talks about Arashi.

- Ohno prefers stageplays to dramas/movies. That is probably why we see him in so few TV dramas. :( Overall, I get the impression that acting makes Ohno really nervous. But he's so good anyway!

- He liked shooting the movie "PIKA*NCHI" with rest of the Arashi members, since it was the first time all 5 of them got to be in one thing since "V no Arashi."

- Unlike acting (which makes him nervous), he likes doing concerts. He's always thinking about the next concert. Starting in 2004, he could even come up with his own choreography. He thinks about what songs to do solos for, what outfit to wear, etc., and likes thinking about those.

- But even now, he has that nagging feeling somewhere that he might not have any fans (stemming from his lack of popularity in the beginning of his Arashi days). So habitually, he looks for his uchiwa whenever he goes on stage. When he finds them, it relieves him and he feels good.

- In the past few years, fans have been holding boards with their "requests" on them - like "Wave your hand" and things like that. It was fun, and he liked doing it because his fans liked it. But then the requests got more... intense and now they've become something like "Blow a kiss" and such. Ohno's really shy and he says it's "out of his character." And the next request is "Take it off." - - ;;

- When they start going on concert tours, Ohno always checks the internet because he is interested in the fans' reactions, since fan letters take time to get to him.

- He watches all his concert videos. Sometimes it maddens him because he sucks so bad, but because his time spent with Arashi is precioius, even bad performances are something to be treasured.

- Arashi members started opening up to each other while they were doing "Here We Go" concert tour (I think around 2002?). They stayed up all night talking to each other about their plans, what they think, how they would move on individually, etc. Ohno felt that everyone treasured the group Arashi.

- Year 2003 brought on some changes. Arashi started hanging outside work and Ohno felt like they had transcended some sort of a barrier. He thinks it's important to hang out outside work, because they are different people when they are working together. Since they are all adults, they can go drinking and stuff too.

- He thinks his voice got higher as the years went by. He feels it's strange, since people's voice tends to get lower as they get older. Now he thinks it's as high as Nino's (which, he says, is REALLY high).

- Working in this industry limits him from meeting people outside, and sometimes it makes him feel lonely. He's always guarded because he doesn't want to be deceived. He thinks that's just the way it is, but it doesn't stop him from feeling lonely.

Since he started thinking that way, he became a bit more outgoing. Even if he doesn't know the people, if he thinks it'd be fun, he talks to them.

- Personally, he doesn't know where he would be, but he wants to have an art exhibit of his own.

- He wonders what their 10th year anniversary would be like. 2004 was HIS 10th year anniversary since joining Johnny's. "I've survived," he says. He has always tried his best. He was a bit irresponsible when he was a junior, so he is repentant of it. But overall, his 10 years were filled with many things and he considers himself a happy person.

- He thinks Arashi only has room for improvement. Each member thinks of the other in a precious way, and after each concert, they become even more united. He says that whatever happens,

The fact that the 5 of them will always be close won't change.




*I'm exhausted!

Wow, great work posting that! That was... a lot of stuff I would've never known about but now that I do it's amazing. The part about how his mom waits for him was so sweet. At first when you wrote he joined "MASK" I thought you meant the visual rock band, they are my favorite. Again, thanks for taking the time to inform us about it!!

Thankyou very much twainhater213 for the work you put into summarizing and posting this.

Wow! I have a lot more respect for Ohno now! That first concert, where nobody knew him, must have been hell.

:O This is great! WOo ~
I'm glad it motivated you to post something cause it's awesome :3
Respecting and loving Ohno more and more.
Breaks my heart about his confidence and how he'd get nervous about not seeing his uchiwa but that's crossed my mind too. If I'd feel like I wasn't as popular as everyone else. BUT WE LOVE OHNO <3

But I have a question - did you straight summarize this from Japanese? I mean.. well, i'm guessing the book is Japanese but just making sure XD

:O wow they were very motivated indeed. that's awesome
i need to learn japanese XD

and i'm still thankful you summarized.
did it only have the ohno interview or was it all five?

It's some interesting stuff, I've seen everybody's but Ohno's and Jun's, so thanks for posting this twainhater213.

interesting...I didn't know a lot until I saw this!! thanks for posting!

Oh Ohno... Reading all of that just makes me want to cuddle him. >_<"

very interesting.

thanks for sharing.

Thanks for sharing twainhater213. I really like Ohno's character... wish I had an older brother like him.

Thanks for translating, there's a lot I didn't know about Captain...Makes me rabu him even more