S/mileage Audition 3rd Round Live Stream Report

Like the 2nd round I decided to do a report on the 3rd round of S/mileage’s audition, but this time I stayed up, watched it from start to end and even wrote my own full report about everything that happened, so if you missed the broadcast and want to find out what happened then please check out this post.

There is a lot of info since I tried my best to include everything, so please check out the full post after the break!

Many surprises in the 3rd round since there were 12 girls that made it (with a surprising newcomer who didn’t appear in the 2nd round), and while some girls who seemed to be favorites didn’t make it to this round there is a good balance of talent between all of the girls that appeared so I’m confident that Tsunku and the judges made good decisions.

As mentioned before I wrote a long report about the broadcast so every detail is included (if you’ve read one of my reviews then you have a pretty good idea about what to expect). I did include many comments about each girl but please keep in mind that they are my opinion, so most likely everyone else is going to have a different view.

Thanks to lovemusic @ H!O for the images, and to Sohee for the romanized list of names!

In order to follow the report well here are the 12 girls that made it to the 3rd round (thanks to iceymoon @ JPLOP for the image):

Click for bigger image

————————————————-

Starting off the doors for the stream opened at 13:50 but the stream didn’t start until later at 14:00, although for now it seems that there are quite a lot of fans since the number rose from 661 to 2,290 in just about 3 minutes, reaching a total of 3,994 once the stream officially started.

The broadcast starts from a camera in the corner of a room along the judge’s table and about 3 minutes after the stream starts 12 girls enter the room, although the camera focused on their feet once they entered, most likely to build up suspense since it’s not easy to tell who is who from the camera they are using.

Tsunku asks one girl to step up and staff gives her a microphone, instead of numbers they each have a name tag where they introduce themselves.

The girls are lined up, and they each introduce themselves while Tsunku asks them each a question, they introduce themselves in this order:

1. Miyazaki
2. Jang Da Yeon
3. Aogi
4. Yamaga
5. Nakanishi
6. Kosuga
7. Takeuchi Akari
8. Katsuta Rina
9. Tamura Meimi
10. Miyamoto Karin
11. Fujii
12. Oda

Takeuchi Akari introduces herself energetically after Kosuga, followed by another Egg, Katsuta Rina and fan favorite Tamura Meimi after her. She does a good job of introducing herself and seems confident in herself. Miyamoto Karin introduces herself after her and she does a perfect job, she seems to be very confident.

The total of fans viewing has reached 8,890 and it seems that in the 12 girls that entered the room the other fan favorite, Ribbon otherwise known as #801, didn’t make it to the 3rd round, which is a shame since she seemed to be like the perfect addition to S/mileage.

After the introduction Tsunku asks the girls to spread out and lineup in two groups of six each, and he asks a staff member with a black hat to stand in between the two groups and read from a paper. The group that has Miemi and Katsuta Rina starts responding first, after which members from the other groups respond as well and it seems that the staff member is asking a few trivia questions to see how each one of the girls respond, they all eventually got a chance to share their answers.

Katsuta seems a bit nervous but she does answer many times, but Takeuchi, Karin, Fujii, and Yamaga did stand out since they answer confidently. Jang speaks softly but she does seem to be building up confidence as the trivia goes on, and so far she seems to understand Japanese well.

At about 32:00 the trivia ends and Tsunku asks three girls to dance after talking to a staff member, after which the staff corrects herself and asks four girls to dance to an instrumental of Some Boys Touch.

Video uploaded by: resonantchissa

The first group is Jang, Miemi, Fujii, and Takeuchi. Jang does a really good job with her dance moves since they seem to be really fluid, Fujii is too energetic and seems to make too many unnecessary moves.

Video uploaded by: resonantchissa

The next group features Katsuta, Karin, Aogi, and Yamaga. Karin dances really well, Aogi seems to be somewhat too loose when dancing, and Yamaga dances pretty good.

The third group features Oda, Miyazaki, Kosuga and Nakanishi. The only one that stood out for me was Oda who doesn’t dance well at all, she seems to have difficulty with the moves and clearly stands out because she didn’t follow the choreography that well.

After they all dance they all line up together and the dance instructor asks them to divide into two lines, they seem to have difficulty lining up but after that Tsunku sits down and they all dance as a group Uchoten LOVE.

Jang dances perfectly to the moves and while she doesn’t seem to have that much expression while dancing she does a really good job. After the dance they all sit down on the floor and Tsunku asks each girl to pass alone to sing Uchoten LOVE.

Miyazaki
2nd Year of High school
From Ishikawa

The first girl is Miyazaki, and she seems to have a perfect voice for S/mileage since she seems to blend in with the other members but she forgets the lines sometimes and seems to have trouble with the high notes, she could be a great member of S/mileage but she doesn’t seem to have that much control over her voice yet. She seems to be a bit scared (most likely because she’s nervous), after she sings Tsunku asks her some questions, her favorite is Sayumi and she mentions something about Sayu’s cuteness (instantly I like her more).

Kosuga
2nd Year of Middle school
From Kanagawa

Next is Kosuga, and she does a really good job, although her “Nai” sounded a bit scary and seems to have a slightly odd tone to her voice (it sounded a bit too nasal). She forgets a few of the lines, but her voice tone doesn’t fit in that well. She starts crying after she sings, but she answers Tsunku’s questions well and after a while she starts to smile and answer his questions well.

Yamaga
1st year of High school
From Tochigi

56 minutes in and at 19,708 viewers the 3rd girl, Yamaga, steps up. She sings really well but she forgets a few lines and starts to get distracted in the 2nd half of the song because she can’t remember the lines well. She seems to be confident and has a good voice, but she didn’t remember the lyrics that well, although she has a great smile. She starts to sing another song  (according to Amped @Jplop it’s Nishino Kana’s best friend song) and seems to have a good range since she hits the first high note pretty well, she seems like she could do a great job as a member of S/mileage.

Takeuchi Akari
2nd year of Middle school
From Saitama

Video uploaded by: resonantchissa

Next up is Takeuchi Akari and she sings really well and doesn’t miss any line. She’s pretty confident and answers all of Tsunku’s questions confidently, so she will probably be a perfect S/mileage member since she has a great personality and voice.

Miyamoto Karin
1st year of Middle school
From Chiba

Video uploaded by: resonantchissa

Next up is Karin and she seems to be really excited about performing, and even does a really cute pose when she sings “Nai”. Her voice is perfect for the song and she seems really confident, she even did a few face expressions while singing so she seems ready to join either S/mileage or Momusu for sure, although I hope she joins Momusu.

Katsuta Rina
1st year of Middle school
From Kanagawa

Video uploaded by: resonantchissa

Next up is Katsuta Rina and she does a pretty good job with the song since her voice fits into the style of the group and she doesn’t miss any line. She answers most of Tsunku’s questions well, and even makes him laugh a few times.

Tamura Meimi
1st year of Middle school
From Gunma

At 23,894 viewers and 1 hour and 12 minutes in the 7th girl, Tamura Meimi, starts to sing. She has a really really high voice, even higher than Miyazaki and seems to be forcing her voice, most likely because she’s nervous. She doesn’t seem to be ready to join a group due to her voice, but she has a great personality since Tsunku talks to her quite a bit and would make a perfect Egg in preparation for a future group.

Aogi
3rd year of Middle school
From Tochigi

The 8th girl, Aogi, is up, she has a good voice but the “Nai” sounded like a high pitched but cute bark. Her dance is a bit awkward but she does seem like she has cute and calm personality and her singing isn’t bad at all, she also answers Tsunku’s questions confidently so she would be a good Egg, not quite a S/mileage member though.

Nakanishi
2nd year of Middle school
From Osaka

Next up is Nakanishi, she seems to have a weak voice during most of the start of the song and forgets many lines, but she does a bit better during the 2nd half of the song. She seems like she is about to cry since she didn’t do that well singing.

Jang Da Yeon
1st year of High school
From South Korea

Video uploaded by: resonantchissa

Next up is Jang, she has a slight but cute accent in her voice and she seems to have problems with a few notes but she has a great voice when she hits the notes well. Her singing voice is a bit deep compared to the S/mileage members but she seems like she could be a great part of S/mileage, definitely among my favorites to join the group.

Fujii
1st year of Middle school
From Aichi

Next is the short and energetic girl Fujii, she has a good voice but she doesn’t have that much control over it, although she is among the few who did sing the song well without missing that many notes or singing in a high pitch, which really surprised me.

Her dancing from before is way to energetic so she might have some trouble if she joined a group until she can learn to control her voice and moves, but she would be a perfect Egg since she has a cute personality and really seems to be comfortable answering the questions and performing. She likes Suzuki Kanon (Tsunku forgets for a second who Kanon is) and mentions Sayu, she seems to have a similar personality to Kanon.

Oda (might be Kota / Ota)
Middle school
From Kanagawa

Oda is up next, and in comparison to her dancing her singing is really good. She has a slightly similar tone to Yuuka and she sings to the song really well, I could easily confuse her voice with Yuuka. She would make a good member of S/mileage vocally, but her dancing really needs work since she seemed to be a bit lost, although it might be due to her being a bit nervous.

Sayu seems to be really popular since she is mentioned a lot, but apart from that Tsunku seems to ask Oda many questions (she even hula dances) so he might be interested in asking her to join the group.

After Oda finishes, Tsunku asks them to face the camera and say thank you to everyone watching. The staff asks if everyone liked the broadcast with four options, 61% say they loved it. the broadcast ends at about 1 hour and 30 minutes with 28,731 viewers.

————————————————-

After the broadcast was over fans (most likely from 2ch) found out that Kosuga has had prior experience in the entertainment world. Her full name is Kosuga Fuyuka, her birthdate is 11/19/1997, and she’s 148 cm tall (according to her Yahoo talent page):

She doesn’t seem to have that much experience compared to #801 or Meimi, but she at least is somewhat familiar with the entertainment business.

Conclusion

From what I saw there are quite a lot of girls that would make perfect S/mileage members, and while I was hoping that #801 Itou Chiyuri would make it to this round I am glad to see that the final group of 12 did an incredible job showing of their talent.

As far as my favorites I would say that based on dancing Jang Da Yeon, Miyamoto Karin, and Yamaga would be good additions since they had almost no problems with the moves, but based on singing I would say that Miyazaki, Takeuchi, Karin, Rina, and Oda stand out since they all sang without missing a note, have a perfect voice pitch for the group (Miyazaki), or just sang good (Oda).

Meimi seems to be popular mostly because she has already been in a play with Yuuka but based on singing and dancing I would say that she wouldn’t be that good of a member since her singing is way too high pitched and she doesn’t seem to have control over it, although it may be due to nervousness, but she did dance pretty well.

From what I have seen I’m rooting for Miyazaki, Akari, Rina, and Jang since they seem to be well balanced in dancing and singing. Miyazaki has a cute look and while her voice might be a bit high pitched it seems to fit in with the S/mileage style, Akari and Rina’s great singing and dancing are also very impressive and they seem ready to debut. Jang might have some trouble with her soft voice and her shy personality but her voice is impressive and she dances really smoothly, so if she doesn’t join S/mileage I would really like her to go solo or join another group (I’m leaning toward her joining a group since she seems a bit too shy to go solo).

I didn’t mention Karin and the reason I didn’t is that she is the main standout due to her amazing voice, cute personality, her comfort level while performing, and her dancing, so I’m strongly leaning toward her joining Momusu instead, although if she didn’t audition for Momusu I hope she joins S/mileage, either way Karin is ready to debut into either group.

The other girls seem to have various talents but for the most part they don’t seem ready to be part of S/mileage. Kosuga seems to have an odd tone in her voice when she sings, Aogi has a good voice but her dancing really needs practice, Nakanishi has too weak of a voice, etc, but I would like to see Oda, Aogi, Fujii, Miemi, and Yamaga join the H!P Eggs to practice more and learn how to sing and dance properly since they seem to have talent.

That wraps up the 3rd round of S/mileage’s audition and with a few weeks left until the member is revealed (8/14) it seems that there are quite a lot of talented auditioners, but Tsunku has done a good job choosing members in the past and I’m sure he will choose the perfect members to complement the group.

There is no confirmed number of how many members might join, but S/mileage did mention in a TV show that there will be a minimum of 1 member added with a maximum of 6, although we aren’t sure if it’s just a guess from them or something Tsunku said.

We’ll soon find out who will join S/mileage so I look forward to finding out, and just like last time I hope this report was useful for fans who didn’t catch the stream.

I’ll update this post with images and videos as they become available.

Yahoo.co.jp Page About Kosuga Fuyuka

TV Tokyo Page Featuring Kosuga Fuyuka