On a calm night, several months after the travel to South Africa, at the counter in a cozy little sushi bar in Tokyo, were Sato Takeru and Taka, the vocal of ONE OK ROCK.
Since Taka was born in April and Sato in March, they are in the same year in school. And they say flatly about each other that ‘He is my boy friend, my girl friend, my closest friend, my husband, and my wife’. This statement shows ‘the closest friend’ is not enough to express their relationship; something is lacking; something is wrong.
One is an actor, the other is a musician. The stage where they perform is different but holding each other in respect, they have shown their problems and inner thoughts frankly to each other.
How is Sato Takeru in the eyes of Taka, who knows Sato Takeru’s real face best? And how does Sato talk about Taka? In what point are they attracted to each other? What differences do they have? What do they feel empathy for? —-
The twenty-five-year-olds started drinking and talking face to face, after they toasted with a glass of beer, eating their favorite sushi.
-How long have you known each other?
Sato: OK, then let’s start with our encounter. I came to know ONE OK ROCK from a co-star in a drama. I was scouted when I was in the second grade in senior high school, and made a debut in a mid-night drama in the third grade. And one of my co-stars told me. He was an actor and singer at the same time. He said, ‘In my class in high school, there is a member of a rock group ONE OK ROCK and the vocal of the group is an awesome singer and super hot. Why don’t you try listening to them?’ If I remember right, we were in some fast food shop. We both listened to a song together eating hamburgers, sharing an earphone. The song was ‘Do you know a Christmas?’ (a self-produced indie CD) It begins with Taka’s vocal, and the moment I heard his voice, ‘This guy is terrific! What a good singer!’ I thought. I remember that clearly. And then, I heard that ONE OK ROCK would hold a live concert at the school festival in Taka’s high school and went to see them. It was when I was in the third grade in high school.
Taka: I didn’t know Takeru was there, right?
Sato: Of course. We’d never met each other yet. But the moment I saw the live concert, I thought, ‘Really cool, these guys! What’s this!?’ Not only the songs but their performance was super cool. After that I became a fan of ONE OK ROCK. In those days, Ryota and Toru, the members of OOR, were living in the dormitory of Amuse (a production company), when I myself was getting busy at work and commuting from the dormitory. So I talked to Ryota and Toru, ‘Seriously, OOR, so awesome!’ (watching the documents) Well, OOR made a major debut with ‘内秘心書’ (released on April 25, 2007) , right? I watched its PV and thought, ‘Really cool!’ and started to go to their live concerts and kept going afterwards. So probably, on Taka’s part, he may have realized, ‘A man named Sato Takeru often comes to see us’, but suddenly, things took a mysterious new turn LOL
Taka: As I recall, when we did a live in SHIBUYA-AX, Takeru came to greet us at the back stage for the first time. I was rather shy of strangers, but I was really happy as he said, ‘I like ONE OK ROCK’. And I felt a little excited and said, ‘Thank you. Let’s hang out soon.’ And we exchanged our phone numbers, probably?
Sato: No, we didn’t, no. lol We didn’t at all. We didn’t meet for a while after that. I had a long term I’d been just another fan of OOR. The next single after ‘内秘心書’ was ‘努努-ゆめゆめ-‘ (released on July 25, 2007), and after that, ‘完全感覚Dreamer’ (released on Feb 3, 2010). Probably it was around the time of ‘完全感覚Dreamer’ that we made friends, right?
Taka: Oh, did we? How old were we? In our twenties?
Sato: We were over twenty at least. Well, what I remember is that I was on speaking terms with other members of OOR to some extent, but I never talked to this person at all. His performance was really cool, but I didn’t know what kind of person he was as a human, so I felt kind of distance between us a little. Then one day when I was shopping in Harajuku, I happened to see you.
Taka: What? I don’t remember at all.
Sato: Taka was extremely modest at that time, you know. Since a mutual friend was there, we talked a little and I found him low-profile. After that we came across each other several times but, anyway, it took us a very long time to make friends. lol And finally we got over our shyness and started to talk to each other. Since I’m a fan, I repeatedly said, ‘OOR, seriously terrific!’ and Taka replied, ‘Thank you’. lol
-When did it happen?
Sato: I don’t remember at all.
Taka: Was it when ‘Kamen-Rider Den-O’ started?
Sato: Much later. At the age of twenty, or twenty-one? No, it might be when I was nineteen. Ah, I have no idea. Anyway, we came to eat out together and we ate hot pot saying, ‘Winter makes us lonely, right?’ lol We both got lonely easily, I guess. And then we suddenly started to meet regularly. Was it the chicken hot pot restaurant in Nakameguro?
Taka: Yes, yes. We often went there.
To Be Continued >>
credit to : stephany-310.tumblr.com
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