During this year, Kirito, the band leader and vocalist of the Japanese rock band Angelo, started to become a lot more active in his Official Youtube Channel, and back in July of this year, he posted a series of videos in 2 parts where he decided to answer various questions from fans that have been posted in the comments sections of his video uploads. I decided to give a try to translating these videos. Some of these questions are very fun, and some others are deep, overall it’s very interesting. I hope you can enjoy Kirito’s thoughts about different topics. This is the first part that was published on July 21, 2019.
“Hello, this is Kirito. Because there has been a lot (questions from fans in the comments section in his Youtube videos) I thought I’d try answering some questions while looking at them”.
Question # 1: Please tell us what are Kirito’s favorite types and brands of alcohol when you drink?
“Basically, I don’t drink much alcohol. Basically, I don’t like it that much, however when everyone says “Let’s go drink today!” um…I do drink continuously until the morning, but compared to everyone else around who end up completely dead drunk, I’m usually pretty normal, and I don’t really understand the meaning of it, if it means I’m strong or weak, but the fact is that I don’t like it.
In regards to brands or types of alcohol I like, I like Shōchū and also wine, generally I am able to hold my liquor with those. I don’t drink much sake either, because I think sake it’s not delicious. In the end, it’s more like when I say “Let’s go today!” with everyone, when I decided to go on that particular day, then for me anything to drink is okay; the type doesn’t change much, and I don’t get drunk, I just don’t drink every day.”
Question # 2: What’s the time where Kirito has the most fun?
“Actually, um… This is a bit serious… I will say something serious. It’s not that I want to look good, but the answer is: live performances. Well… There are times when I ride motorcycle… These are hobbies, like watching movies or reading books, there’s a lot of these in my private time, there’s a lot of things I enjoy doing. Well… After all, when it comes to the number one most fun thing to do, that is not just a fun thing, it’s also difficult, there’s a lot to it, it’s like you’re possessed at that moment, there’s a lot of spectators, there’s the band performing, and me singing, and it somewhat becomes the moment when I’m focused and concentrated to the maximum level, and the adrenalin comes out; that is really as expected.. Well, maybe it’s actually different from “fun”, how should I say it… well, more than being just fun, it’s something that goes way beyond that. (the answer is) It’s live performances after all. It may seem like something a musician would say, but for me it’s live performances after all.”
Question # 3: In the last concert you mentioned that Angelo will appear in the Tokyo Olympics 2020, in which event would like to participate?
“Did I say that…? Well, I guess I said something irresponsible. For example, if we were to appear in the Olympics, hypothetically speaking… Um… Gymnastics…no, I’m not at that level at all. I used to be in a gymnastics club once before, but…because of my fear of heights, it was impossible to do the horizontal bar, it was completely hopeless. However, when it comes to watching the Olympics in TV, the segment I like the most is the gymnastics.”
Question # 4: During live shows, how do you decide on the hair color and clothing to wear? Do you have any pickiness about it?
“Basically, I’m a person who gets bored quickly about things… so I also get tired quickly about the hair color, um… Why? Well, I don’t want the image to become something established, so…well, if I get tired of it, then I change it, and this happens during concert tours too.”
Question # 5: Please tell us what maintenance methods you use to preserve your slim but muscular figure?
“Well, I think this also depends on personal choice, but in my case, I do all kinds of efforts to maintain my body shape. Also, I don’t want my silhouette to become too bulky, and maybe that’s impossible for me anyway, with this kind of body frame I have, even if try to build a lot of muscle, it’s impossible after all. So, naturally, if you tighten your body, and while being tightened you perform maintenance, then eventually your silhouette will become thin.
It’s kind of the body plan you have, so what is it for each kind of body frame? There’s for example those people who aim to reach a body builder figure, they would do bench press and such, eventually if you work on that particular muscle line, it will grow thick and the amount of muscle will increase. For example, there’s also those who consume protein etc., but I really don’t understand that very well… however, increasing muscles, while consuming that would make areas such as breast muscles, upper arm etc. to seem well developed, and these are methods in order to develop such figure.
In my case, basically, my ideal is to reduce fat to the utmost limits, and depending on the amount of fat, I try my best to avoid increasing the amount of muscle too much. Basically, I don’t work on pectoral nor chest muscles, and also the arms, I don’t try to develop large biceps. I work on the reverse side (referring to the reverse area of the arm, I think it’s called “triceps” …! Kirito doesn’t seem to know the name either) so in order to tighten this muscle, you have to use pressing force, pressing downwards force (Kirito does the pressing down movement demonstration) there are machines for that purpose. Conversely, if you do the lifting method, it works this area instead (pointing to upper part of arms, “biceps”), for example, using dumbbells maybe?, so it develops more the biceps area, and on the contrary, if you do the pressing method, the muscles in this area (pointing to “triceps” reverse arm area) will develop.
And of course, the area of abdomen too. I work on the abdomen area almost to the point of death, because this is the most important. And I think my secret is the muscles that surround the backbone. Because, when you prepare your backbone in a robust way, it’s like a control tower where all the muscles are connected to. Even if your backbone becomes robust, your figure won’t become too bulky. So, basically you should decrease your fat to the limits as much as you can, also, avoid increasing the amount of muscle, and then also avoid working too vigorously on the chest, the upper arms, etc. I really don’t know the muscle names (Kirito points to the upper area of the front side of the arm, near shoulder, I don’t know the name either…); instead, develop the reverse side (Triceps), and make the muscles of your backbone to become robust, there are about 5 or 6 machines for that purpose, so, do that, and then there’s also aerobic exercises. Basically, I do 1 hour of it, when I go to the gym, I do running for 1 hour, and then with the aerobics exercise, it’s like “gyaa!” pushing your body, and then the body warms up and the sweat pours down, from here, you can do muscle training. That kind of feeling.
Then, there’s the food. So, in this sense, during times when I have the target to reduce the amount of food, then my diet is focused on fish. Also, I’ve heard often the recommendation about cutting rice and carbohydrate intake, however this is very dangerous. In my case, when it comes to rice, I eat boiled barley and rice, “mugimeshi” (this dish is also called “麦飯/mugimeshi”), so with that, the fish, I burn the fat and it’s good; this is pretty much from my experience. I really don’t recommend cutting down the carbohydrates too much, it’s relatively dangerous, and it’s not something long-lasting.”
Question # 6: As a band leader and president, when comparing the past and present time, have you changed your way of doing things?
“First of all, I don’t think my personality is suited to be a band leader, president of a company or to be at the top of this organization. That’s because I’ve been told since I was a kid, that instead of integrating with people, I would tend to leave people behind. Relatively, I didn’t have any sense of cooperation, that’s why I think I’m really not suited for it.
And well, until now it has been this way, that’s why I’m not the type of person who is able to explain the know-how to others. As I said in a video I posted before, someone like me who is not very sociable, and is too meticulous toward other people, and also someone like me who lacks any sympathy or consideration to others, when I think that someone like this was able to become a band leader and a president of a company, I guess that is because I was someone who took the initiative and continued with it, I had the resolution and had established a sense of purpose.
After all, when I was young, I had my major debut when I was 26 years old. That was when I swiftly created a band from indies, which had a very popular major debut, it was a period with a very hectic environment. At that kind of time the environment already became very abnormal, but even in that kind of environment, I had to produce results, I was very tense at the time.
When I think about it, setting aside if there were good things or bad things, my nerves were on the edge. Well, I think there were more things in a bad sense. However, I took the initiative, and I thought it felt like a suicide, but I just did it and I cut through that road. I thought this was the only role for me, although at that point I still wasn’t able to cooperate with other people, and was too meticulous, and didn’t have consideration to other people, so in that sense my nerves were on the edge.
However, In regards to what’s different from that kind of past when compared to the present time, is that now what I want to do the most is to have fun. Which is a bit different from what I wanted in the past. In the past, it wasn’t that fun anymore, it was already a painful and life-threatening situation obviously, it was very violent and I was on the edge. That being said, it was sort of an extremely destructive kind of thing, regardless of that, it still was the place I wanted to go to at the time, the enthusiasm was very high, and I think that was probably the only way to be able to penetrate through it. After all, human beings are not able to accomplish things if they are not connected and cooperate together, so in that sense, if they are too destructive, they won’t be able to follow things anymore, and in the end, everyone will end up broken.
Right now, things are a little bit different, regardless of what I am doing, whether it’s concerts, rehearsal, songwriting or recording, although it is fun, it’s not only that. More than general fun, it’s more like a feeling of “YEAH! (gyaa!)”. When you are aiming to a goal, although it may seem fun to get results by rushing intensively, isn’t it more fun to obtain results while you are actually having fun? This is what’s different from the past compared to the present time.”
I hope you enjoyed this translation, and I wish a happy Merry Christmas to everyone!
JAPAN MUSIC SEKAI ~ Jrock & Jpop talk ~ 