Our guest correspondent Hydra was at PMX 2009 late last year. A J-Rock specialist, she was able to get an interview of Uchu Sentai NOIZ alongside the folks with JRockRevolution. Hydra also translated this interview from Japanese.
Cat, a photographer, took our photos of the band. All photos that don’t have our watermark on it are courtesy of Valerie Durham and JRockRevolution.com.
More long-delayed PMX coverage to come over the next few days! Watch for some exclusive video footage too. —Mike
Anime Diet is honored and proud to be able to have the chance interviewing one of our biggest guest from Japan, representing the Jrock and visual-kei “Uchu Sentai NOIZ”. From their press release: “UchuSentai NOIZ is the cutting edge of Japanese rock. They have toured extensively throughout Japan and released numerous albums and maxi-singles, DVDs, videos, and books. UchuSentai NOIZ’s visual kei style inspires their fans to cosplay and emulate the band’s costumes.”
We were able to present in front of the band, bringing you some exclusive information to you.
Q: What is the concept behind each of your battle suits?
Kyo: There is no specific concept but “Asian Culture”, or “Japanese.”
Masato: X-Men. I like X-Men!
Angel Taka: There is no specific for me, but my image is “Asian beauty.”
Yamato: Creature.
Kotaro: Final Fantasy.
Q: Not only are you guys wearing your battle suits when performing, you’re also posing in various gestures on stage. Are you all very influenced by sentai dramas in Japan when you were young?
Angel Taka: Instead of being influenced by the dramas, I’d rather say we “are” the space rangers.
Masato: I like the Kamen Rider Series.
Everyone: Yeah Kamen Rider! And Gaoragner, Zyuranger, Dekaranger!!
Angel Taka: There are just too many to count…
Q: Other than being space heroes, what are your strengths and weaknesses?
Angel Taka: Being positive is my strength, but my weakness is that I act before I think.
Masato: Once I decide to work on something, I can work on it forever and ever. But my weakness is that I can’t stop and can’t do anything else when I’m focusing. That means I don’t pick up the phone, don’t shower, or eat.
Angel Taka: Oh…what an artist…(other band members nod and laugh)
Yamato: I can hold on and endure, but I can’t voice out my opinions too much.
Kotaro: If I decide to do something, even if it takes 4 years, 10 years or forever, I can still keep on working at it until I accomplish it. My weakness is that I can be very indecisive, for example, when I’m picking up bread at the convenience store. It might take more than 20 mins…I’m very very on my own pace.
Kyo: I’m good at cooking, but I’m bad at keeping track of expenses…
Masato: How auntie-like.
Q: Looks like each individual has his own specific colors in his costume. How do you decide the colors you wear?
Angel Taka: They’re more of our image colors really…
Masato: To me it’s simple: I like my orange color…
Angel Taka: Me too, I like pink!
Kotaro: Well, I actually took Kyo’s favorite color away, it’s my favorite color too, and I believe I had a blue aura in my past life, so I took the blue color.
Q: If each person of the world could do something to help Ucho Sentai in their quest of protecting peace and happiness, what would you want them to do?
Kyo: Please keep on smiling.
Masato: Me too: please keep on smiling.
Angel Taka: Please listen to our music.
Yamato: Everyone work together to make a big bridge around the world so UchuSentai can cross it and go to all the countries all over the world.
Kotarou: I want everyone in the world to be constantly feeling the love.
Q: How long does it take each of you to put on your elaborate makeup and costumes before each performance?
Kyo: 0.8 light years….about 20 minutes.
Masato: 35 minutes at the fastest.
Angel Taka: 3 hours.
Yamato: I was born this way.
Kotarou: Usually…the real time is about an hour and half, but it’s about 20,000 years in my mind.
Q: What would a boy or girl have to do to catch your eye during live performances?
Masato: My eyes go to the people with big smiles and going crazy in the crowd.
Kyo: The more ugly you look when you smile, the more you will attract my attention.
Angel Taka: Sexy costumes. I feel like if someone has fun in whatever they are wearing, we will notice it more.
Yamato: Their voices calling for us.
Kotarou: (napping)…eh? Oh…smiling, and letting out their spiritual and natural attractive aura. And someone that will keep looking at me, AND someone feels the same way as me…and that’s the sleepy Kotarou’s answer.
Q: What attracts each of you to play the instrument you are playing now in the band?
Masato: I used to be a drummer before; I actually wanted to play the bass, but there was only a singer and myself. Since it would have been hard to play bass without a guitarist, I started to play the guitar.
Kyo: I wanted to become Komura Testuya when I was young: I wanted to play the Key-tar, but it was too expensive. So I thought about the guitar, but guitar has so many strings…so I got a bass, because a bass only has four strings. And now, I’m playing five strings, so it just gets harder and harder. But in short, I started the bass because I thought it was easier!
Angel-Taka: I was not with any other band before NOIZ. I was playing guitar at first, but I ended up switching part with the singer because I really want to sing, so that’s how I became the vocal person for the band.
Yamato: I started playing the guitar, and then later on my friends and I formed a four-person band. Two of my friends from the band said that they really wanted to play guitar, so even though I wanted to play the guitar myself, I told them that I was okay to do the drumming.
Kotarou: When I was in the fifth grade back in elementary school, my older brother bought a guitar, so I started to play the guitar thinking that might help me to attract girls. Almost around the same time, I joined the school choir, and since I was pretty good at singing, I thought maybe singing could help me to be even more popular with the girls. Once I was into the visual-kei scene, it seems that the guitarist gained lots of popularity, so I started to play the guitar again.
Thanks to Jinnie at PMX for helping us get an interview at the last minute.
hi! thank you for the time you spent with us.during your visit here in davao. i had enjoyed. you rock angel.
i like you kotarou.
You guys rock!!! never leave our side Uchuu Sentai NOIZ I and the world loves you!!! 🙂