Translations
First of all, it's nice to meet you all. Could you tell us who you are and what is Cat Scratch?
Chiharu: Nice to meet you as well. I am Teruya Chiharu, and Cat Scratch is... a bit of a happy accident? I suppose sometimes executive producers make good decisions.
Koki: (laughs) Careful, Chi-chan. You're going to get us fired before we debut.
Naoyuki: (chuckle) It's true it was a happy accident, though. (waving) I'm Shimizu Naoyuki, previously of Stray and now of Cat Scratch.
Koki: Ah, yes. I'm Koki Ono. Chi-chan and I had previously been in King×Queen together, before merging with Nao-chan to be the group you see today.
It's good to see you all together. You mentioned being in previous groups; have there been any struggles in moving from a duo unit and a solo unit respectively to a trio?
Koki: There have been some, yeah, but it's nothing too unusual for a group changing. I mostly had to get used to the style change. Cat Scratch was a big enough change from what I was making in Yumenosaki, but... (laugh) I promise, we've made it work. We got it to click.
Naoyuki: That might be my fault, haha. Please don't be too mad, KingxQueen fans! The style change wasn't so big for me, so the transition has honestly been pretty easy.
Chiharu: Honestly, it’s been about as difficult as it is to join a group any other time. We had to pretty much start over from scratch— heh. I was mostly worried I wouldn’t be able to live up to the new expectations we’d set for ourselves, but I had no doubt it’d work out. Frankly, I worried more about whether we’d get along with Naoyuki or not…
(He reaches over to gently pat Naoyuki’s thigh with a chuckle) But he’s very likable, and he makes sense of things when Koki-chan and I can’t, so I’ve been having a great time.
Naoyuki: (Pointing at himself.) Ah, I'm likable, I'm likable, Teruya-san called me likable! (Laughs.)
Koki: (laugh) You're likable when you're getting your spacing right. That's the one thing about solo idols, once you're in a group you never know how to get your spacing right.
Naoyuki: Ahhhh, that's true. It's been really hard to adjust to keeping others in my peripherals. I've been pretty spoiled as a solo idol!
Chiharu: (Rests his head against Koki’s shoulder) Aaaa yes, I suppose that’s one thing not to like. He’ll get better at it though, pinkie promise ^^
Koki: We'll whip him into shape. And he'll make sure we're alley cats instead of royalty, huh? (laughs)
Chiharu: I’d like to think we’d get the best of both worlds, but I’m perfectly fine with being a cat.
Naoyuki: I sound like such trouble that way, Ono-san. I promise I'll try to be a good royal pet, everyone!
We're all looking forward to it! Is there any chance you could give us a sneak peek of your royalty now? Can you let anything at all slip about your debut single?
Koki: Sneaky, sneaky! You're not getting anything out of us that easy. We can't give any word on our single, no. I will say one thing, however, about our upcoming work: I can't even wait. [1]
Naoyuki: (Through laughter) Nyao~ ♪! But seriously, we’d hate to ruin the surprise! Sorry to everyone, but you’ll just have to wait. We’re eager to share this with you too.
Chiharu: Mmmhm~! You shouldn’t ask such silly questions yanno… Anyways, we worked very hard on it, and we can’t wait to share it with you all…☆
Fair enough! Now, the three of you went to rival schools— with Teruya and Ono going to Yumenosaki, and Shimizu going to Reimei. Has any of that rivalry bled into your current group?
Chiharu: This may be a boring answer, but honestly? Not at all— at least on my end. Yumenosaki was already competitive enough alone… I didn’t think I’d even get to graduate! (Laughs) It makes our group a little more interesting though, doesn’t it?
Koki: I don't think it makes me much of a rival, it just makes me bossy. (all laugh) We've all had our fair share of rivalries in school, I think, and it's something that we're not interested in continuing further. We'd much rather play cat-and-mouse with someone than be rivals, I think.
Naoyuki: You notice how both the Yumenosaki graduates spoke before me, Interviewer-san? (chuckles) But no, I agree. There's not really much of a rivalry - I guess more of a school culture difference? It's not a problem, though. If there's anyone who should be worried about rivals, I think it's the other ES groups, yeah?
Koki: Oh, definitely. I can smell that on the horizon, but it's not really our speed. We're more the playful type.
On that note— if not a healthy rivalry between idols, what was it that got you into idols and idol culture?
Chiharu: (Stretches a bit in his seat) Hm! I had a neighbor when I was younger that I’d hang out with a lot. She liked girl groups a bunch, and I liked her. (Laughs) we stopped being friends after a while, but I guess watching all those idols left an impression on me, and I kept watching them because I wanted to do what they did? And then I turned out to not be a girl, so no girl groups for me ^^
Koki: (laugh) Girl groups aren't how I got into idols, but I've always admired their tenacity. I can't imagine how they handle all those layers of skirts— the layers in the King×Queen costumes were bad enough. (laugh)
For me, though, I've always been a fan of music, and was actually applying to Yumenosaki for the music course, not the idol course. I took the exams for every course just in case I flunked, but I was aiming for the music course. I ended up passing for the idol course, and my plan was to suck it up and transfer to the music course as soon as possible, but I just fell in love with idols my first year I was there. I think I would really be a different person if I had passed that music course entrance exam. (laughs)
Naoyuki: Oh wow... I honestly don't know if I remember. I've always been an idol fan, actually! I remember as a child learning the choreography for some of the popular groups at the time. That's what ultimately led to me going to Reimei, anyways! As for actually what got me in, I think I have to thank the scouts there! (laughs)
Koki: Ugh, I feel so uncool here. I feel like I need to lie and say I've loved idols since I was a kid, now. (laughs) You two are making me look bad!
Chiharu: Hmm? Don’t say that— we can’t all be tv clichés, Koki-chan.
Koki: Maybe, maybe! I'll just have to watch from afar, I guess!
Naoyuki: I didn’t think it was a competition, haha!
Koki: (Laughs) We may have to take back what we said about the rivalries, then. (Leans into Chiharu)[2]
That was originally going to be the end of my questions, but I actually have one I want to add on. Ono and Teruya look like they're quite close— Shimizu, are you being given the cold shoulder?
Naoyuki: What a question! No, not really - I'm just less familiar with both Ono-san and Teruya-san. They are both alumni of the same school after all, right? (Laughs.) I don't feel too chilled out.
Chiharu: (Reaches to hold Naoyuki’s sleeve) Are you trying to break us up, Interviewer-san? I’m almost offended. Just because Koki and I have known each other longer doesn’t make Nao-chan any less valuable. You ought to be ashamed of yourself~ ♪
Koki: (laughs) Is this because of how I've been holding Chi-chan? I promise we're not negligent— I've still got my eye on Nao-chan, don't worry. Chi-chan is just a little needy, so he gets a little more of my attention.
Chiharu: I am not the needy one here.[3] But he’s right— I do hope you believe us when we say we don’t have any intent on snubbing our dear Nao-chan ^^
Understood, point taken! Then, do you three have anything you want to say to everyone looking forward to the release of your debut single?
Naoyuki: I want to thank everyone for their support thus far, and I hope you're all excited for a new start!
Koki: I'd like to echo that sentiment! And add on that, to any KingxQueen fans following us into this new era, I hope you'll have fun exploring all the new parts of ourselves. Especially as we let our hair down, so to speak.
Chiharu: Ah… yes. Agreed. It’ll be fun for us, I hope it’ll be fun for you all as well.. ☆
[1] TL Note: Koki says here "て待てもできない", which, now that their cover of Animal has been released, we know is a pretty direct reference to the lyric "I can't even do stay", but for the sentence it's in, this makes more sense. And without that context, that's likely what he meant for fans to take it as, so I wanted to leave that translation in.
[2] TL Note: There's some speculation about what's happening here. Koki leans into Chiharu, and it's a distinctly intimate action, but it's a little unclear what's happening. Some people speculate that he's kissing the back of Chiharu's head, but there's really no proof of that. The two are definitely getting very close, though, and it's noticeably intimate, to give context for what the interviewer says in response.
[3] TL Note: He pouts here. Its only for a split second but despite sounding annoyed he literally pouts in response to being called needy. I felt like that was important to add