#toki shunichi

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Hamano who goes to the gym, Nogami who never does, and Toki who goes naturally

Animals, swords, battleships, robots…recently, it seems like content personifying practically every other thing has been an emerging order of business. In the midst of all this, yet another personification project was born. And that is BBB (Balance Ball Boys). What is being personified here are the balance balls usually seen in mail-order TV shopping channels, for use in diet or training.

Within these contents, women who spend all their money and time on their hobbies first are called “Nengukei Joshi”*; this project aims to promote fitness among young women.

The characters are: Mio, the prince hiding his wicked do-S tendencies, Fumi, the always-exhausted genius, and Daichi, the hot-blooded tsundere. They used to be idol group CCC (Triple Cherry), until they got into a sudden accident and were somehow reincarnated into balance balls. Told by a heavenly deity that “you will be human again after you have turned the attentions of the Nengukei Joshi overpopulating this era back to their health,” they work themselves ragged for the sake of all womankind. This is their story.

Toki Shunichi. Born May 7. Tokyo native. Affiliated to WITH LINE. His roles include Tsuzuki Kei in Idolm@ster SideM, Eto Kouki in TSUKIPRO THE ANIMATION, Rurikawa Yuki in A3, Toki Yuito in Anidol Colors, etc. 
Hamano Daiki. Born March 30. Tokyo native. Affiliated to Arts Vision. His roles include Enjouji Michiru in Idolm@ster SideM, Onizuka Go in YuGiOh VRAINS, Dante Mogro in Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans, Kasuga Hirokuni in ALL OUT!, etc.
Nogami Sho. Born September 4. Oita native. Affiliated to VIMS. His roles include Iseya Shiki in Idolm@ster SideM, Kuga Ichiru in TSUKIPRO THE ANIMATION, Alan Redford In THE MARBLE LITTLES, Gail in Magical Circle Guruguru, etc.
Photographer: Wataru Nishida(WATAROCK)

This is an interview with Mio’s Toki Shunichi, Fumi’s Hamano Daiki, and Daichi’s Nogami Sho. Of course we’ll talk about the project itself, but we will also tackle their personal health consciousness and hobbies.

Balance balls personified!?

There hasn’t been a project personifying balance balls before, so this idea was surprising.
Toki: It is, isn’t it. I think balance balls are things everyone isn’t familiar with, so I look forward to seeing if we could make people notice them and have an interest in them. The final setup hasn’t been decided yet, but I’m just pretty sure that whatever it is, it has something to do with balance balls.
Hamano: Right, right. I’m also interested on finding now how people who regularly exercise and use balance balls will take this. As for people who normally don’t exercise, though, if us portraying BBB lets them have some interest in it, I’d be pleased. Personally, I love moving my body, so I look forward to how my exercise routine will change from now on.
Nogami: I’m Hamano-san’s exact opposite - I never exercise. So I guess that might mean I’m the one who understands the feelings of BBB’s target audience the most…that’s something I’m proud of. I wanna warmly say “I understand how much you hate exercise. But let’s do our best together!” and help you.

Mio, Fumi, Daichi

BBB is a project aiming at Nengukei Joshi who pour all their love into their hobbies, so they may do their exercise while enjoying it. Everyone, how much do you normally exercise daily? Hamano-san’s already associated with rugby, though.
Hamano: I do love exercising, but since I started seiyuu work I only ended up exercising a few times across the years…I thought “I don’t like this! Let’s move my body more regularly,” and so I started going to the gym again. Because I make up my own routines, it feels like a hobby, and with that alone my body already feels like it’s getting better.

How frequently do you go to the gym?
Hamano: Around twice or thrice a week, now. Because when summer hits all I’ll do is swim in a pool. I actually wanna go to the gym daily, but there’s no saying if a daily training regimen would be effective.

Each of the three having their own way

How about Nogami-san. Didn’t you say you never exercise.
Nogami: I was in the track club in middle school, but quit due to my injuries. I started being interested in plays at around that time, so ever since then, I stopped exercising.

So you don’t ever go to the gym.
Nogami: Never ever!!
Hamano: How reassuring.
Nogami: For example: if someone told me “You HAVE to get thinner!” and I could only choose between going to the gym and starving myself, I would choose to starve. THAT’S how much I hate exercising…

The two of you are on opposite sides of the scale, but how about Toki-san?
Toki: I have a friend who works at a gym so that’s the reason why I went there. As for sports experience, I took swimming and kendo lessons as a kid, and was in the tennis club in high school. Also, my dad’s friend sells books for a certain bookstore and I help out when he supplies textbooks to schools. Since I was in elementary up to when I was in high school, I’d carry blocks of twenty textbooks at a time for hundreds of times, back and forth. That’s how my body happened.
Hamano: A natural body.
Toki: I don’t get to go now, though, so I lost that body. Around half a year ago, a friend of mine invited me to play tennis, but my body was wracked with muscle pain the day after (lol). Somehow it feels like my body begun to not like exercise after not doing it for so long. I prefer just moving my body around rather than training at a gym, so I go to a nearby wall-striking place, or go running at the park. And then I go to my kendo teacher’s place for coaching.

The three of you really have your own ways of going at it, don’t you. Are there any health-conscious things do you aside from exercise?
Nogami: I don’t do anything related to that. My health is bad (lol)
Hamano: Hmm. Due to work I can’t keep steady eating habits, so I make sure to drink supplements. Also, I make sure that at the very least, my lunch has vegetables in it, stuff like that.
Toki: Ah, I try to drink dietary fiber once a day. I also drink chelate lemon daily, because I like the taste of it.
Hamano: I also drank some this morning.
Nogami: I drank that the other day (lol)
Toki: It’s for the times when you want a bit of vitamin in your body.
Nogami: Am I gonna be alright in the future (lol)
Hamano: You might die early.
Nogami: THAT’S what I’m worried about.

Is that how bad your eating habits are? 
Nogami: They’re already wrecked beyond repair. Right now, I don’t give consideration to my health at all. I think the most I do is skincare.
Toki: I’m flexible. My big sis does classical ballet, and for that you have to be flexible. So sometimes even when we’re watching TV we do flexibility exercises.
Hamano: I’m bad at stretching. I normally end up vocalizing in pain.
Toki: Vocalizing out loud isn’t bad, rather, it signifies that you’re working up a sweat.

Individual obsessions

Do you three have hobbies which make you a Nengukei Danshi?
Nogami: I’m a Nengukei Danshi. I just keep aggressively buying clothes.

How much?
Nogami: It’s a bit…my manager is here so I don’t wanna say it…that much…
Toki: You’re always stylish, aren’t you.
Hamano: That’s right. But, how do you maintain that?
Nogami: The first thing I do when I get home is take care of my clothes and shoes. “You worked great today,” I tell myself, while polishing my shoes, ironing my clothes. And after that, I change into my houseclothes and relax.
Toki:Amazing…

Do the two of you have obsessions like that?
Hamano: I guess my watching foreign soccer games would count. No matter what I do I can’t go there to watch it live, so I watch through TV or on my phone. No matter how late it is on our timezone, I’ll go watch it. I don’t have any other hobby like that (lol)
Toki: I don’t really have obssessions myself, but I do go to the same coffee shop every day.
Nogami: Eh, so cool. Trendy!
Hamano: What do you drink?
Toki: Always coffee. My reset point is at that coffee shop, not my bathtub. I drink coffee with my mind blanked out and drifting off into space. On the days when I can’t go there, I drink coffee at home.
Nogami: So it’s not that you drink coffee to think of anything.
Hamano: If for example, one of the near tables is really noisy, what would you do?
Toki: I don’t think you need to bother about it to that extent. This has nothing to do with fitness (lol)
Nogami: What I said had nothing to do with it either! (lol)
Toki: But fashion does seem to have some relation to it. If you have clothes you wanna wear, keeping your silhouette is important isn’t it.
Nogami: Well I guess, that’s the reason why I try to not get fat after all.

The development from here on out?

There’s going to be a lot of developments from here on out, are there any things you would’ve liked to try doing.
Nogami: The fact that an anthropomorphized balance ball project exists is already a base-breaker, so I think we can pretty much do anything. We have characters already, so I’d wanna try doing stuff like character songs or drama CDs.
Hamano: I wanna play kick ball with a balance ball.
Nogami: That’s nice (lol)
Toki: Ahahaha. But, there’s another thing I wanna try, where balance balls, the audience, and us are all there.
Nogami: It’s not a meet-and-greet or a talk event, we’ll all just go exercise (lol)
Toki: We’re in the position to teach them, after all.

―Do you have any experience with balance balls?
Hamano: After I got the role in BBB, when I go to the gym I think “I have to use this somehow,” and just sit on it. I’ve gone and used a flat balance board before, but I have yet to properly use a balance ball.
Nogami: I’ve tried out a balance ball in the house of one of my relatives. I forget how long ago this was, but I tried sitting on it for some kind of skit, and fell right down. And that’s it.

――You never imagined you would take this shape, did you.
Hamano: We became balance balls, didn’t we.
Nogami: Really (lol)
Toki: We used them sometimes during kendo practice. Sensei would sit on the balance ball on his knees and wield his bamboo sword from there. When I thought I could do it too, I fell down so beautifully. I tried again so many times, carefully, but I finally got to do it in the end.
Hamano: You’ve managed to use it that way, so aren’t you a master at it already. First off, you teach us that; then I think we’ll be able to teach everybody.

• my translation index
  
• The term they use to describe their target female audience (and later, themselves) is Nengukei. I have no idea how best to translate this succinctly in English, but nengu refers to some kind of annual tax, and -kei prefix makes it a kind of person, so: someone who spends for their hobbies as diligently as they spend for their taxes is Nengukei Joshi/Danshi???
  
• thanks for reading! please do not redistribute this translation!