Q1: Tell us where your name came from!
I hear they made it 朱音 (Akane) since they wanted the characters to be symmetrical and to use the 音 character. Though it's not completely symmetric left to right, it's close enough (lol).
Q2: Which senpai do you aim to be like?
Former Morning Musume member Tanaka Reina-san. She has a lovely singing voice, and a unique way of dancing that's incredibly cool. Moreover, she's incredibly cute. I love how her Hakata dialect is so cute too!
Q3: Who would you want to be if you were born differently?
Tanaka Reina-san here too. I want to perform like Tanaka-san. Kudo Haruka-san (Morning Musume '17) says "My admired senpai is Tanaka-san" and I get jealous when she says it like that. I also want Kudo-san to say she likes me (lol).
Q4: What do you think you are #1 at in Hello Pro?
My hometown love! I'm from Nagano, and I love my home and can talk an awful lot about it. Because of that especially I think I'm number one.
Q5: Tell us something awesome about Hello Pro!
Though there are so many groups, each group has a completely different personality. But whichever group, when everyone gets together, a sudden feeling of unity is born! I think that's awesome.
Q6: If you could form a special unit in Hello Pro, who would it be with?
I'd like to try a unit of Kudo Haruka-san and me as a duet (lol). That, or Kudo-san and Ishida Ayumi-san (Morning Musume '17) and Tsubaki Factory's Ogata Risa-chan and me, the 4 of us. I'd like to try it as these members who've all had a sleepover together.
Q7: Tell us your favorite Morning Musume song!
"Kimi sae Ireba Nanimo Iranai". I like the part Ishida Ayumi-san sings in the 2nd B melody an awful lot. Since I haven't performed this song in full yet, I'd like to do it sometime.
Q8: What's your favorite song in all of Hello Pro?
Morning Musume's "Be Alive". The tune and the lyrics are both beautiful, so I think it's a song which can make you happy just listening to it. I like it an awful lot since it'll give me energy if I listen to it when I'm feeling down.
Q9: What's the difference between the current and former Hello Pro?
The current Hello! Project has changed systems many times and added new units as well as new members. Saying that, I think it's awesome how you can always see a new Hello! Project.
Q10: Aside from yourself, who would be your #1 member for someone to watch in order to come to like Hello Pro?
Funaki Musubu-chan (Angerme/Country Girls). Though she's amazingly small her dancing and singing both have an amazing impact, and although she's incredibly cute in cute songs, she's incredibly cool when doing a cool song. Since she's appearing in CMs and on TV too, I definitely want you to see her. She's my rival (lol).
Q11: What about you do you want people to pay the most attention to?
The gap between my appearance and what's inside. I'm often told I look outwardly mature, but inside I'm not really that mature. Though I have various sides like the disposition of a big sister and a little sister character, inside I think I really am a kid.
Q12: What's some work you'd like to try in the future?
I'd like to try doing a regular solo radio show. Since I really love to talk, and am often praised by those around me too. I hope opportunities like that will start increasing.
Q13: What do you want people to pay the most attention to in Morning Musume?
Though we work incredibly hard on our formation dances for the stage, everyone's close in the dressing room. Though we have senpai-kouhai relationships, since we're so close that it seems we don't really care about it, I want you to see that.
Q14: What will you be doing 20 years from now?
I want to ask "Have you stopped being bothered so easily?" I get bothered really easily, to where my favorite phrase is "Too bothersome". If I don't fix that I definitely won't be able to manage a household or anything right? Since things like doing laundry will be too bothersome. Since I'll be 35, I want to do that so I can get married.
Q15: Since it's the 20th anniversary, please tell us a special secret!
So I just talked about wanting to do solo radio. You know how you can transmit your voice through cell phone audio recording? I've been sending Tsubaki Factory's Ogata Risa-chan a 15~20 minute recording of my voice like a radio show. With Morning Musume 9th gen members' song "Ai Saretai no ni..." as the opening. I send that every Friday. The name of the program is OGT Radio's (a fictional radio station name) "Haga Akane's Oyaki~ Radio" (lol). When I was bored I told Marunee (Ogata) I wanted to send her a voice message, and that started off the course toward radio. I started it after Marunee thought up the program name for me, and Marunee does properly listen to it. It makes me think how kind she is (lol). The first episode was on 2016/7/1, and I've been doing it most every week since then.
Q16: What's something you'd like to become able to do by next year when the 20th anniversary is over?
Since I've been really bad at going down stairs for a long time, I want to become better at being able to go down stairs (lol). When I was in elementary school I'd skip a step or two, and one time I fell. Since then I've hated stairs. In concert sets we often have stairs, and since I'm wearing heels it's noisy going down them. Because I'm slow going down, it causes problems with the flow of movement. Though I don't know how I'd fix it, I'd like to overcome it.
Q17: What would you do if you weren't an idol?
I wanted to work at a famous cake shop in Nagano. I don't like whipped cream, but the whipped cream from that place is the only kind I can eat. So I'd make whipped cream at that place, and since if I couldn't eat it then it wouldn't be the right flavor, I think I would have become a genius at making whipped cream there.
Q18: What are you most into now?
Something I often do when I'm bored is look through the camera roll on my cell phone. To the extent that when I open my phone my hand starts moving through the camera roll by itself. Since it's full of memories, I've been into looking back on memories from those times and watching cute Kudo-san videos. When you see me grinning while looking at my cell phone, it's generally when I'm looking at my camera roll (lol).
Q19: Who are you close with in Hello Pro?
Tsubaki Factory's Niinuma Kisora-chan. She's my generation-mate from the Hello Pro Kenshuusei, and we've often been going out to eat lately. I've wanted to go again to a doria place I went to with Kudo Haruka-san, but since I was too flustered to invite Kudo-san I had Kisora-chan take me. We both love "Pretty Cure", and since Kisora-chan often does the "Pretty Cure" gachagacha games she gives all of the extras she gets to me.
Q20: What is an idol to you?
Before I joined Morning Musume, Morning Musume to me was a really wonderful thing that could make me smile and give me energy. So I think idols are those who give smiles and energy. I also really want to become able to give people smiles and energy and make them say "You moved me!" by listening to our singing.