Japan’s new "it girl",
Shoko Nakagawa, otherwise known as
Shokotan, has taken fans by storm with her catchy music, down-to-earth otaku personality, and her extensive, record-breaking blog amongst many other talents. Invited as a guest of honor,
Shokotan gave her first concert in the US at Anime Expo 2008. In honor of her performance, an official translated version of her blog may be found
here for a limited time only, in English.
Having settled into the convention after arriving to an odd occurance at the Los Angeles airport- a bomb threat- the day prior,
Shokotan met with JaME for a pre-concert interview.
Thank you for meeting with us. Please introduce yourself for our readers.
Shokotan: Nice to meet you, I’m
Shoko Nakagawa. I’m a huge fan of anime, cosplay and anime theme songs. I’m thrilled to have been invited to America to Anime Expo, so I’ll keep working hard!
How was your flight here? I heard something odd happened at the airport?
Shokotan: The flight was very comfortable, the food was great and I enjoyed it, but once I got here, the incident happened. I thought it was like the movie "Die Hard 2" (laughs) but it was kind of exciting!
As your first performance in the US, do you have any expectations?
Shokotan: I was filled with anxiety and I was getting nervous, but earlier today, I did a panel and performed one of my songs,
Sorairo Days, during the panel. It wasn’t planned, but I just did it. The American fans stood up in their seats and I got a really good feeling from their reaction that gives me courage for the concert. At the show, I’m going to show up in cosplay and play some anime theme songs, including one from "Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann". I’m also preparing lots of great footage to be played on the screens, so I hope the fans will enjoy that. I just want to have a good time with the fans!
Your blog is extremely popular, even overseas. What was it like for you when you first learned about its record breaking hits? Did you think it would become as popular as it has?
Shokotan: When I first started the blog, I thought nobody would care about it; that nobody would read it. The reason I started blogging was because I made my debut as a pop-star, and a pop-star is considered not to be an otaku. Being an otaku is like, a taboo for a pop-star, so I thought I needed a place where I could be frank and honest about my hobbies. That’s why I started writing- I could be an otaku in my blog. Once I started that, there were so many reading it; the people that share the same hobby as me; I was honored, it was so exciting. When I heard that it marked one billion hits, for me, it was really memorable.
A compilation of your blog entries titled Shokotan Blog
was published by Koma Books. How did this release come about?
Shokotan: My main reason to do the blog is to leave proof of my having lived life. That’s why I do blog entries everyday, but you know, the internet is a recent trend. It just happened in the past couple years, so it could be gone in the future. I wanted to leave it in a print as the proof of my life, that’s what I thought. Just then, I was offered to publish a blog book, so I was really happy.
How were the entries selected?
Shokotan: The book is like this thick (motions a couple inches wide with hands), but when you print out all my blog entries it’s like this (motions a couple feet wide with hands, laughs), so it was really hard to select. What I did was categorize the blog entries; fashion; makeup; cats; cosplay; anime; manga, etc., and I made a selection according to each chapter. It was hard! I update my blog as many as 50 to 80 times a day at the most, so when you write that much in a blog, when you go to select them, it turns out to be just one page. It’s kind of sad.
Last spring you collaborated with Sanrio to make Hello Kitty phone straps. How did this collaboration come about?
Shokotan: It was like a dream come true! I’m a big cat lover and I’m also a huge fan of Hello Kitty. In Japan, there’s a thing called Gotochi Kitty. In every prefecture of Japan, there’s a specialty food or something that represents each prefecture and the Gotochi Kitty commemorates each prefecture. I’ve been collecting them and have as many as 400 Gotochi Kitties. Since I’m a big fan and was writing about it on my blog, the Sanrio company called me up and offered to collaborate with me, so it was like a dream come true! They made Mamitasu Kitty and Shokotan Kitty. Hello Kitty is supposed to be white, but Mamitasu, my cat, is a mixed breed, so they made a mixed Hello Kitty. That’s pretty surprising that they did that because Hello Kitty is supposed to be white (laughs).
You enjoy cosplay. With your costumes, do you create them yourself or are they created for you?
Shokotan: Some of my friends make cosplay outfits by themselves, but I don’t do it, I buy them mostly. I mostly buy from auctions or I go to this place called "Nakano Broadway". It’s this shopping center in Tokyo that I’ve been to so many times since I was little. It’s a shopping center where there’s a lot of otaku culture and you can buy a lot of otaku things, so because of that place, I became an otaku (laughs). I spend a good portion of my salary on cosplay (laughs).
I see you’re cosplaying Kenshin from "Rurouni Kenshin" right now. Why did you choose this cosplay to wear today?
Shokotan: (Pulls sword partially out of its sheath). The reason I picked the
Kenshin cosplay is because I love "Rurouni Kenshin" of course! I picked this outfit because it’s a kimono and a sword, which represents something that’s Japanese. The first CD I ever bought was "Rurouni Kenshin" theme songs, so it’s really a special anime for me.
When it comes to your music, what kind of input do you have in the production?
Shokotan: Well, the reason I became a singer is because my staff member told me I was going to be releasing a single. The song they gave me was like, trance music, and I thought I can’t do this! I tried, recorded it, and did a promotional event which people came to, so I was really happy and started to like singing songs. My second single was written by my favorite artist, so that made me really happy. The third single was
Sorairo Days, the theme for "Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann". Before that music came along, I heard that Gainex, the company that produced "Evangelion", was going to be creating a new anime that was going to be "Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann", so I was really excited about it. I didn’t know that I would be able to do the theme song for the anime, but then I was selected as one of the competition artists. Nothing was confirmed and I had to do the audition and everything, but then I was confirmed to do the theme song for "Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann". I was so excited! When the music is made, I talk to the lyricist and give my input on what I want them to write. Recently, for the very first time ever, I tried writing lyrics as well.
Last summer, you released your first rock song Sorairo Days
. Was it challenging to sing in this type of rock style?
Shokotan: When I was younger, I didn’t have a lot of friends and I was kind of shy- I had a sort of negative life- so the image of a rock song, being cool and positive, was something I thought was opposite to me. When I heard that I was going to be singing a rock song, I thought no, I can’t do it, but I jumped in and tried it. I realized it was really fun to get pumped up and sing the rock song, so I liked it. That made me really positive. Now every time I sing it, it gives me energy.
You’re a huge anime fan; having released the fan-requested Shokotan Cover
and Shokotan Cover2
CDs, how did you decide which songs you would cover?
Shokotan: Basically I put together my favorite theme songs that I grew up listening to. For the first one,
Shokotan Cover, most of the themes I picked were either ending themes or interludes that not many people know, songs that are around 20 years old, so I didn’t think many young kids would know these songs. Regardless, I wanted to include them because those are the songs I loved as I grew up. For the second volume, I asked my fans to give their input on which songs I should cover so the songs like
½ and
Rinbu -REVOLUTION are the songs that the fans requested. Many of the songs included in the second volume are ending themes. I think that the ending theme is what represents the anime the most.
Not only do you sing, cosplay and maintain an extensive blog, but you’ve also done voice acting and drawn manga. Out of all your projects, what would you say is your main root?
Shokotan: I’d prefer not to stick to one title. I want to make my business card, but I don’t know what to put as my title because there are so many things I do (laughs). Some fans call me blogger, some call me cosplay performer, but I don’t even know myself. When it comes to drawing manga and voice acting, I feel kind of bad doing it because I’m an amateur among many professionals with those kind of skills, so I feel bad that I do it as an amateur, but still, that’s something I’m passionate about so I want to keep doing it and keep developing as a manga writer and voice actor. I also love singing so... I’d prefer to not stick to one title (laughs).
When it comes to your drawing, where do you get the inspiration from? What inspired you to start drawing in the first place?
Shokotan: I got into drawing because my father used to draw, so I was watching him do it. Also, I’m a huge fan of "Sailor Moon". It’s too cute- the girl with the long hair, the short skirt and everything- so I was drawing "Sailor Moon" characters like crazy for a while and it just took off from there.
Your career is deeply involved with anime; what are a few of your favorite series and characters?
Shokotan: My number one anime is, of course, "Sailor Moon" (laughs), but my other favorite is "Suzumiya Haruhi". I recently started watching it and it gave me really positive feelings because the message of the anime is unique and positive. I got a lot of inspiration from the anime because the character is really positive and free. I also love "Evangelion". My favorite character is
Asuka because she’s really strong and I really like her character. The characters I like are the long haired ones like
Sailor Moon and
Asuka. I especially like that type, so that’s why I’m growing my hair long (laughs). It’s easier to cosplay when you have long hair.
It seems a lot goes into voice acting. Have there been any challenges in matching your voice to the character that you had to overcome?
Shokotan: The first voice acting I ever did was for and anime called "Eyeshield 21". I auditioned for it and was selected, so I voiced the part of
Suzuna. I was told not to change the voice for that character, so it wasn’t that difficult, I only had to focus on the lines and the movement of the mouth. The second one was "Hakaba kitarou" and I played this character called
Neko, the cat girl. It was really difficult because she has two sides- one is a regular girl and the other is she turns into this cat monster. When she’s a girl, she’s supposed to be like a traditional quiet Japanese beauty, but when she turns into a monster, she has a scary voice, so I found it difficult to make that change. Before I went into the recording studio, the image I had for this character was one with a big chest that looked very sexy. I thought
Neko was 17 years old, but at the recording studio, I learned that she’s only 6 years old, so that was a surprise (laughs). The third character I did was for the "Pokemon" movie. I did the voice of the android maid. An android is supposed to be a character that doesn’t have any feelings, so I couldn’t show any emotion for that character. It was a little bit of a challenge.
In May, you had your first nation-wide tour in Japan to promote your first album, BigBang!!!
What were some memorable moments that stood out the most to you?
Shokotan: I played ten concerts during the tour. There were so many enthusiastic fans all over the place! They showed up in cosplay and dressed up even though I didn’t ask them to do it. The concert became a place where fans got connected and became friends so my concerts became like a community. That made me really happy. There were even fans who met at my concert that got married! The most memorable thing is the fans because at the concert, everybody had a glow stick and they all became one. The fans are great.
You have an upcoming single, Shiny GATE,
to be released next month that will be used for "Tokyo OnlyPic 2008". Could you tell us more about this special feature event and what kind of music can we expect from this release?
Shokotan: It’s a song for the movie called "Tokyo OnlyPic 2008", a computer graphics sports movie and
Shiny GATE is the theme song. It’s a cheering song with a message that’s really positive. I want to give back through the positive message of this song. I’m proud of the lyrics don’t be afraid of anything and open the new door. That’s the message of the song. In the past I’ve had the chance to meet so many people and received positive energy from them- I want to give it back to the people through this song, so I hope that this song will make people smile.
Lastly, please give a final message for our readers.
Shokotan: I never imagined that I’d be invited to an event in America. I feel really honored, having attended this event. I really feel that the love of anime connects people despite the language barrier and that the love of anything connects people and makes them positive. I really feel that, coming to this event. I feel so fortunate to be living in a society where I can meet a lot of people on the internet through the blog because that’s how international fans got to know about me. What I want to do is live for the moment. They say you only have 30,000 days in your life, so I want to live my life to the fullest and try a lot of things, so to my fans all over the world, please support me! To my American fans, please support "Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann"! Thank you very much!
After a stunning performance at the Nokia Theater two days later with an attendance of 7,100 fans,
Shokotan shared with us the impression her first US performance left on her.
Shokotan: I can't believe the concert was such a big success and it's amazing that my dream of doing a cosplay concert came true in America. I can't thank my Japanese fans enough for coming all the way to Los Angeles to support me, and of course, my Americans fans were so great, too. So warm and welcoming. I will keep working hard, so please support me and have me back to America. Thank you "GIZA" (very) much!!
JaME would like to thank Yuriko Inagaki, Sony Japan, Anime Expo and Shoko Nakagawa for making this interview possible. All live photos by Chie Kato.
