[Translation] Interview with Mano Erina & Manetty at Barks

This is translation interview from Kawaii-Girl Team.
its about past, present, and future work Mano Erina with her manager, Manetty (as call as that :swt )
So, better you prepare yourself! :D

Erina Mano has graduated from the Hello! Project after the live “Erina Mano Memorial Concert 2013: OTOME LEGEND For the Best Friends” held on February 23, 2013. We’ve set up an interview with Mano and her chief manager “Manetty” who has been famous among her fans to look back her works in the Hello! Project.
The interview was held at the corner of one café in one afternoon on one weekday. Miki Fujimoto who belonged to the same agent as Mano’s and was elder than her was getting an interview in the same café. No one, even Mano could stop Manetty in the interview. We have put their conversations into text without editing. We’ve seen them talking with each other like this while they were waiting in the bus at the shooting. We wonder if we should release everything we’ve heard. We send the interview in two parts.
◆How they have met each other
Ma (Erina Mano)： We worked together for the first time in the opening act for the live of ℃-ute held at PACIFICO YOKOHAMA on August 30, 2008.
──How were you looking at each other then?
Ma： I thought she was scary. Basically managers look scary to me. I didn’t know what to talk with her. When she became my manager, we went out together to eat something. I couldn’t start up a conversation myself. When she asked me “Do you like studying?” or “What do you do on the days off?” I just answered few words. I wasn’t trying to make friends with her because she was supposed to take care of my work. I was thinking I shouldn’t be too close with her.
── How were you looking at Mano then, Manetty?
MN (Manetty)： At first I was also managing Miki Fujimoto. She had told me “Mano seems to be a very quiet girl”, which I soon found true. Every time I worked with Mikity, I asked her what I should talk with Mano.
──You two seem to be very close with each other now.
Ma： We’ve been together for almost 5 years.
MN： It’s because of my effort. I never stopped trying to talk with her.
──Is that true?
Ma： I don’t remember when I opened up my heart to her. I remember the time when I exposed my feelings to her more than any other time. It was soon after I made a solo debut. When I was up to the recording of my 2nd single, she told me I would play the piano and dance in the song. She also told me the members from the Hello! Project Egg would join me as back dancers. I was really confused to hear that and asked her “Why?”
── Why were you confused?
Ma： Because I’ve made debut with the piano song. But for my 2nd single, I was asked to dance with the back dancers most of whom were elder, prettier and could dance better than me. Some of them are now in S/mileage. I was trying to do my best in my performance, but I became unconfident to hear that. I was really hard on Manetty in that year.
MN： Honesty, it was really hard to take care of her in those days.
Ma： (Laughing) But she was the only one I could expose my feelings. I was disappointed to find out “Even if I were a solo artist, there are few things I can decide”. I suppose my debut year was the hardest period for me as well.
── Have you opened up your heart to her after that episode?
Ma：It was what Risa Niigaki told me which has changed our relationships. When I attended Hello! Project Meeting, I had a little argument, not a fight, with Manetty in the hallway. Niigaki was watching us and asked me if I was alright on the way to the backstage. She told me “Managers understand everything about us. It’s important to talk honestly with each other. You don’t have to keep what you’d like to say to yourself.” I remember very well I was relieved to hear that.
── When was the happiest moment you’ve shared together?
Ma： When I get offers from the TV drama or movie, she is the first one to tell me the news because we’re always together. I remember the time when I got the role in the TV drama “SPEC”.
MN：We were in the Okinawa food restaurant.
Ma： When we were eating there, she got a phone call. She told me I had a chance to get the role. Because I’m a solo artist, I can hear that kind of news as soon as it reaches her. I was happy to have her with me and say “We did it!” together.
── What about Manetty?
MN： I wonder what my happiest moment was. I got far more regrettable moments.
── Would you like to talk about them instead?
Ma： Don’t you remember any happy moment with me? That’s kind of impolite to me. (She became sullen)
Ma： I would say I feel happy and relieved when we finish the concert successfully.
── Which concert for example?
MN： In the “801DAYS Erina Mano Concert Tour 2011: Hatachi no Otome 801DAYS”, I found her singing ability had really developed. I knew it was because of me!
Ma： Why? It was not all because of you.
MN： It was because of me who had arranged as many voice training lessons as possible for her!
When she held a debut concert, her 1st tour had been already arranged. I knew she would have to work harder for the tour. That’s why I took many photos of her at the debut concert, made the photo book and gave it to her so that she would never forget the happy memory of the debut concert.
── When was the hardest time together? Is there anything you didn’t like about each other?
Ma(Erina Mano)： I still can’t forgive her for having got influenza on my major label debut day. She had attended the release events held on weekend, but she looked so pale there that our agent’s president told her to go home. Once I was attended by the president at the hand shaking session. We had been working together since I belonged to the indie label and travelled across the country. I was really sad not to have her on my major label debut day.
MN (Manetty)： I was sleeping at home on that day.
Ma： I still can’t forgive you for that (laughter), because you can experience your debut day only once!
── What about Manetty? When was the hardest time?
MN： When she collapsed during the shooting for the TV drama, I really didn’t know what to do.
Ma： I had been shooting from the previous evening to the early morning on that day. It was already 6 in the morning when finished but the next shooting was supposed to start at noon. She told me to go home so that I could sleep at least 2 or 3 hours. I did so but when I woke up my temperature had risen to 39 degrees. I told Manetty I was sick, went to see the doctor, got medications and back to the shooting. But I can’t remember what happened next very well.
── What do you mean?
MN： She fell on her knees during the rehearsal.
Ma： When I came back to myself, I was sleeping in the car.
MN： She was supposed to shoot the important scene with the main actor. I was like, “Come on, what are you doing?” I slapped her cheek really hard to wake her up, but it didn’t work at all. I found her really sick and took her to the hospital.
── I didn’t know that.
MN： I’d been thinking I was keeping my eyes on her health condition. I had always taken her to the hospital anytime she looked unordinary. But at that time I should’ve not only made her take the prescribed medicines but get the intravenous injection even if she couldn’t meet the shooting time. I really regretted for that.
── It must have been hard for you to make those decisions, for there was one and only “Erina Mano” and there was no one to fill her place.
MN： I realized it was completely my fault then.
■What Manetty means to Erina Mano and vice versa?
MN： Looking back now, there have been so many things between us.
Ma： We’ve been together for almost 5 years. We spend more time together than with our families.
MN： There were times when you used to cry every day.
── Erina Mano said you spend more time with Manetty than with your family. What does she mean to you?
Ma： It’s difficult to define. She’s not just a manager but not my family or friend even though I tell everything to her including private episodes. I talk with her like “This is what happened yesterday,” or “While I was eating with a friend of mine”. Our relationships are kind of strange.
── You can’t always find someone like that.
Ma： Once I was told by my agent that she would be replaced by someone. I begged them not to do so. I told my family that my manager would be someone else. It was about 2 or 3 years after my debut.
MN： I don’t remember about that.
Ma： (Laughter) Then my family met our president at some event and told him what I was thinking. If that happens again now, I will feel insecure.
── How do you see Erina Mano then, Manetty?
MN： I’m only a manager, so she’s my business partner. I’d like to say to her, “Please make me rich soon!”
── By the way, are you still be the manager of her even after Mano graduates from the Hello! Project?
Ma： At this moment, she will be.
MN： Things will not change a lot for her after the graduation. She will not join the collaboration concert of the Hello! Project or TV programs and events with them, though.
── Instead of those works, is she going to work in stage plays or in new fields?
MN： She will.
── For the last, please send message to Manetty from Mano, for she will continue to support you by your side.
Ma： I’ve been telling her not to get married until my dream comes true. I can’t exactly say what my dream is, but I want her to see me get awarded for my acting in the movies. I know that’ll be difficult, though. She’s always saying “I want to get married, I want to get married”. I always tell her “You shouldn’t!” I believe she will quit her job after she gets married. She’s all-work person now and will quit working if she can’t work that way. I hope she won’t get married another 10 years, for it will really hard to make your dream come true in the acting career.
── I can understand that.
Ma： Sometimes I get worried imagining she won’t be my side when I really need her. Such as on the day I attend the overseas film festival.
MN： I could be in the labor then.
── Do you believe you’ll be married by then?
Ma： I won’t like that! We were always saying, “We should give the Hello! Project back what we’ve got from them by working hard in acting.” I’ll feel really insecure if I had a different manager within a year. I’ve been seriously discussing every detail of my stage plays, movies and scripts with her.
── I know what you mean.
Ma： So one thing I really want to tell her is “Don’t leave me in the short notice.” I’d like to tell her “I will keep on giving you worries and troubles for the future”, too (laughter).
── Then please give your message to Erina Mano for her future, Manetty.
MN： I really believe she has just started, especially in acting. She won’t be able to escape or make excuses anymore there. She just has to do what she should. But we’ve been always thinking about her career after the graduation and preparing for that. That’s why I feel it has finally begun. She will find many interesting things in the new fields.
── You will find many new interesting things, too. Doesn’t that delay your marriage?
MN： I believe I can handle both.
Ma： I believe she won’t be able to have even a boyfriend as long as she’s with me!
MN： No, No, No.
── Anyway, you two are going to be best partners all the time, aren’t you?
Ma： I believe so.
MN： We’ll continue to say what we want to each other and have fun together.

credits:
Kawaii-girl.jp
part 1part 2
barks.jp