On the bayfm radio program “Tonight, Under Sakura’s Tree” (every Wednesday from 24:00 to 24:30), broadcast on Wednesday, June 24, 2020.
IZ*ONE’s Miyawaki Sakura was talking about the VCR (stage transition video) at the comeback show.
Miyawaki Sakura: Well, since you made a comeback last week, I’ve received a message of your thoughts about the “comeback show.” Tokyo, radio name “Maruta.” Thank you.
Listener mail: Good evening, Saku-chan and all the staff.
Miyawaki Sakura: Good evening.
Listener mail: First of all, congratulations on your comeback. I was watching the comeback show on YouTube.
I was surprised and excited by the strong impact of “Fantasy Fairy Tale,” but when I saw the scene in the comeback show where they were watching a video message surrounded by messages from “WithOne,” I noticed something. I felt a little lonely while watching, but I honestly realized how wonderful it was that IZONE was so grateful to each other and supported each other.
Minju was secretly concerned about the members who couldn’t return to Japan, and Eunbi was thinking about so many things, writing songs, and bringing the group together. It must have been really hard, but they were still working hard for everyone.
I’m sure that off-camera, they’ve been working hard, sweating away their lives, and supporting each other kindly, which is why they were able to say such wonderful words as in the lyrics of “With*One”.
“IZONE is for WIZONE” “WIZONE is for IZONE”
I want to stay by their side and stay that wonderful.
Until now, I had dreamed of a time full of happiness “walking a rosy road”, but the times that didn’t go well are over, and now they’re standing up again and cherishing each step.
That’s the image I can picture in my mind now.
Since I’m in Japan now, I don’t know when I’ll be able to see Saku and the others again… I’m a bit worried, but I thought “If I’m in WIZONE, I should be smiling.” I don’t want to regret this magical time IZONE gave me.
I’ll never forget the happiness of meeting IZONE! No matter how hard things get from now on, let’s hold hands and support each other. Thank you again. I’m glad I met Saku and IZONE!
Miyawaki Sakura: Thank you.
Ah, the comeback show. We worked really hard on our performance for the comeback show… The VCR was also of very high quality.
Those who watched it will understand, but “WIZONE sent us messages and we all watched them together,” and we also all sent video messages to the IZONE members…
This time we have a new concept, and there are many changes to the system and so on.
For us, the most difficult thing was changing the way we practiced…
Our teacher is very busy, so he only comes when he needs to add choreography. So we had to practice by ourselves and get the choreography right a lot of the time.
The system has changed again from before, so we had to constantly set aside time to practice, otherwise we wouldn’t have any time to practice. So Eunbi was always watching over us in place of our teacher, getting the choreography right together, and when we filmed it, we all watched it and said things like “Let’s do this bit like this,” and we had to do it by ourselves.
Until now we had a teacher, but the system changed and now it’s just us, so it was really hard to do everything by ourselves, since we had been supported by him until then. We were confused, and we didn’t know what the right answer was, but we felt like we had to do it… that situation continued for quite a while.
We were really confused at first, and I think Eunbi had a really hard time, but she really guided us, and we were able to follow her, and although this was a new concept, I think we were able to show everyone the new goodness of IZONE, as well as the goodness of IZONE that we’ve had up until now.
I really want to thank Eunbi, and all the other members, starting with Eunbi. I think we were able to create “Fantasy Fairy Tale” because all 12 of us worked together, and that’s why I think the bond between us in this song has really deepened, which is what led to that VCR.