Airi Suzuki was moved to tears during the August 7 live broadcast of Fuji TV’s Pokapoka, after receiving a lengthy and heartfelt message from her longtime mentor Tsunku♂.
Airi appeared on the program alongside actor Yudai Chiba. During the show, Tsunku♂ looked back on her career from the time she joined Hello! Project Kids in 2002 at the age of eight, before later becoming a member of ℃-ute.
One of the most striking parts of his message concerned something Airi experienced throughout her Hello! Project years: despite being recognised as one of the group’s strongest performers, she was rarely praised by Tsunku♂. He explained that this was actually a consequence of how highly he rated her abilities. In his eyes, the standards he set for Airi were already much higher than those he might have set for someone who was still developing. He illustrated it by saying that if someone performing at a level of 50 suddenly reached 80, it would naturally deserve praise, but if someone already capable of an 80 only reached 85, he would expect even more.
Looking back, however, Tsunku♂ admitted that there were many occasions when he thought Airi had done an excellent job and that he perhaps should have praised her more directly at the time.
His message then turned to Airi’s present-day career. Tsunku♂ revealed that he had recently happened to catch one of her dramas and sent her a LINE message to tell her he had watched it. He praised her ability to adjust her acting to the people around her, describing her approach as highly professional. At the same time, he said he would now like to see Airi push herself in another direction.
Rather than always adapting perfectly to her surroundings, Tsunku♂ encouraged her to show a more uninhibited side of herself through both her acting and singing, what he jokingly described as a kind of “runaway” or “going wild” performance. He added that he wanted to see this hidden side of Airi, telling her: “Suzuki can do it. I trust her.”
By that point, Airi was visibly emotional and wiped away tears.
She explained that she had always felt Tsunku♂ continued to watch over her career, but his message made her realise that he had been paying even closer attention than she imagined. She was particularly moved that, despite having worked with so many young performers over the years, he could still think so deeply about one individual artist. Airi ultimately responded to his challenge with a declaration of her own: “I’m going to go wild!”