Rain Tree Serialization [Part 7] Mio Suzuno and Mari Nagase: “I realized that I am an idol! I realized that I am an idol!

Nagase: “I want to turn them all around!

For the past year, the 17 members who were not selected in the final round of the “IDOL 3.0 PROJECT Audition,” produced by Yasushi Akimoto, have been performing under the name “FINALIST. They are now starting a new group under the new name “Rain Tree” and will make their major debut with their first digital single “ILU” on January 29, 2025.

In this seventh installment, we present an interview with Mio Suzuno and Mari Nagase!

–How would you describe each other’s character in a few words?

Mio Suzuno: ” Mari cries a lot (laughs).

Mari Nagase “She is very tearful and cries easily. For example, I have such a loose lachrymal gland that I cry when I watch the last episode of a drama I don’t know. I cry when I’m happy, I cry when I’m frustrated, and I cry when I’m nervous. …… All of my emotional expressions are “crying. Moreover, out of the 17 members, I cry faster than anyone else.

Suzuno: ” Even when everyone else is not crying, when I look at Mari-chan, she is already crying.

Nagase: ” Mio is the youngest in the group, but she is so firm that you don’t feel it. She may take advantage of the older members, but she never makes a weak remark, and I have rarely seen her cry. I think she is the type of girl who can solve problems by herself without relying on others.

Suzuno: ” She hates to lose.

Nagase: ” She is always energetic and is a mood maker of the group. When all the members get together for a serious talk, Mio sometimes starts a skit in the middle of the discussion, which makes the mood more relaxed.

Suzuno: ” I try to tell the members exactly what I’m thinking, but if I do that and the atmosphere gets too heavy, it can get awkward, so I sometimes do skits like, ‘For example, if Anpanman did this…’ “

–How did you two become interested in idols?

Nagase: ” My sister is a fan of Nogizaka46, and because of her influence, I also started to like idols. When I went to see a live performance by Hyuhizaka46, I was so moved that I got goosebumps. I wanted to be an idol who could move many people! 　That’s when I started auditioning.

Suzuno: ” When I was in the sixth grade, an audition program called “Nizi Project” was popular in my school. I saw the show and was instantly captured. I wanted to be someone who sparkled and shined like NiziU! 　 That’s what made me want to be an idol.

–Although she made it to the final round of auditions for the “IDOL 3.0 PROJECT,” she narrowly missed out on her debut. After that, you became active as a FINALIST. What was the moment when you realized that you had become an idol, too?

Suzuno: “I thought that once I became an idol, a glamorous stage would be waiting for me from the very beginning. I imagined myself in the spotlight at a packed venue and receiving a lot of cheers from fans……, but I realized that this was a naive idea and that in reality you have to put in a lot of effort.

But no matter how small the stage is, fans always take pictures of us while we are performing. When I saw a picture of myself dancing with my hair blowing in the wind and my hands outstretched, I realized, ‘I’m an idol! I really felt that I was an idol.

Nagase: ” I didn’t really feel that I had become an idol for a long time, and although I received original songs as a finalist and even performed on stage, I always felt like I was dreaming. But when I was performing on stage, it was natural that some people were looking at me and others were looking at the other members. I wanted to make them all look at me! I think that this is the beginning of my self-awareness as an idol.

–The road to your debut was not a smooth one. Were there any memorable moments or events?

Nagase: ” We participated in WHITE SCORPION’s release event as the finalists, and we planned everything by ourselves and prepared the costumes by ourselves. We planned everything by ourselves and prepared costumes by ourselves. In many situations, we felt that this was the difference between a group that had debuted and a group that had not yet debuted, and we sometimes cried in frustration. But it was because of these experiences that we were able to train ourselves mentally, and I think it strengthened the bond between the members.

Suzuno: ” During the year leading up to our debut, I was half frustrated and half happy, and every time I saw WHITE SCORPION appearing on TV programs and performing in head-to-head events with famous people, I wondered, ‘What would have happened if I had passed the audition and debuted? I wondered what would have happened to me if I had passed the audition and debuted. But at the same time, I was happy to see the members of WHITE SCORPION standing on the gorgeous stage, and I felt proud that I had auditioned with them.