Johnny's WEST is the current debuted Johnny's group doing the 10000 word interview feature in Myojo magazine and Kiriyama Akito is the first one out. Thankfully someone has been kind enough to translate it into English for the English speaking fandom and I would recommend checking it out.

That said I found it rather interesting in not only getting to know Akito a bit better but also more of the story behind the group's debut. The narrative that was given for how the group went from four to seven was just that the four basically just asked that it be the seven of them instead. With the interview we get more to the story and Akito brings up that whether or not the group would be four or seven had been up for debate with management for awhile before the debut announcement. So when the four asked to have the other added it was something that had been considered before and if anything the request of the four just pushed things towards going with seven in the end.

I find this important as it can be assumed that despite what fans may think Johnny's just does not do something just for the hell of it. I doubt the request for a seven member JW would have worked out if management had not considered it before. Of course it still took the four having to make the request to make it happen so I do not think that takes away from the show of the strength of the bonds the seven had pre-debut.

The other thing that really stuck out to me was how serious Akito was about the opportunities he was given also being a chance for him to help raise the profile of the Kansai Juniors. I was always happy to see him and Nakama Junta as the Kanjuu leaders on Shounen Club bringing Kanjuu over to get some screen time in there segments, and now those make so much sense. I feel rather disappointed that we do not get those anymore as I am certain Akito would still love to support the Kanjuu in that way. I really do not think there could be a better host for Shounen Club now, though it would probably help if there were more Juniors he could help promote on the show.

My love for Akito has definitely gone up reading this and I really hope that the rest of this series will get translated so I can get to know all the members of JW better and see what their views on these things are.