"Do you promise to love me forever?" - Ai Shinozaki, 10 Years A Gravure Idol

On one fateful day ten years ago, a talent scout approached Ai Shinozaki and her friend while they were out shopping.  When asked if she had any interest in the entertainment industry, Ai said no and walked away from the scout.  Her story could have ended there.  However, it didn’t.  Because thankfully her friend saw the opportunity she had been given and gave the scout her name and home phone number.  3 days later she was flown to Cebu Island by herself to film her first photobook and image DVD.

Ai's First DVD Release

On June 26th, 2016, Ai Shinozaki held a dinner show in Ginza to celebrate her 10 years in the business.  It was titled “Ai Shinozaki 10th Anniversary Party ~Do you promise to love me forever~”. Now, you may think that sounds an awfully lot like something you would hear at a wedding.  And, you would be right.  Before Ai made her entrance, we were informed that an actual Priest had been called for the event and we were all going to swear our love to Ai. 

As Ai entered, the crowd gasped.  She wore a real wedding dress and we were all allowed to take pictures of her as she walked down the aisle. 

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Upon arriving to the stage, cameras closed and the commitment ceremony began.  It was interesting to hear traditional wedding vows read out to the audience.  When asked if we would swear our love to her, the answer was a resounding “Yes!”  That was our role after all.  It was whether or not Ai would swear her love back that was the worry.  Anyone who has met Ai knows that she is quite the sharp-tongued woman and a “no” wasn’t that unimaginable.  But, we needn’t worry, the answer from her was also a cheerful “Yes.”  And so, we swore to love Ai forever. 

After the Priest left, we were allowed once again to take photos for a short period of time.  I was able to get some good shots of her at this time.  Unfortunately, I don’t yet possess a super expensive camera like many of her fans do, so I apologize that these were the clearest shots I could get.

Once cameras were put away for good, the event continued.  There was a lot of talk about how Ai got her start, her transfer to a different agency (which led to her participation in the idol group AeLL) and some of the first events the group held with fans.  One of those events was a Fuji mountain climb with fans.  The climb was planned to reach the 8th Level and do goods sales there, however no one made it that far.  After making it around half-way there, the group turned around and went back down to the starting point at Level 5, where an exhausted Ai sold goods to exhausted fans.  Ai thanked fans from her early days for putting up with such ridiculous staff-planned events.

Of course, no anniversary event would be complete without messages from people close to her.  First came a message from a magazine editor she has worked with for many years, then a cameraman, and finally her high school teacher.  Her high school teacher seemed more interested in having her give his regards to other celebrities than talking about Ai herself.  In rehearsal, Ai had heard that there would be four video messages.  However, that was a lie.  The comedian who acted as emcee that day said they had a message from her mother.  At this, Ai asked if it was really from her mother.  The emcee explained that staff had pulled a prank on her before where they said her mother wrote a letter but the letter at that time was an obvious fake.  No, this one was real.  The letter itself wasn’t too spectacular in its content towards Ai, but it still moved Ai and her fans.  The most striking thing was that Ai’s mother referred to the fans in her letter and thanked all of her daughter’s fans for supporting her for so long.  Of course, it made Ai cry.

After composing herself, Ai went on to sing two songs with piano accompaniment. She sang her second single that was only released digitally, “Hikari” and then one of the coupling songs to her debut single “Again”, a song called “Rainy Blue”.  Now it was time for Ai to get changed for the second half of the event.  Before doing so, she went around to each table and took a commemorative photo that should be arriving on fan’s doorsteps soon.

Around 20 minutes passed before Ai returned.  And when she returned, she was no longer wearing a wedding dress.  In fact, the dress she now wore was longer pure white.  It was passionate red.  The second half of the event started with an upbeat performance of her debut single, “Again”.  This was followed by a talk on stage where she revealed that the dress she now wore was what she will be wearing in her major debut single from Sony.

It was first revealed that she would be making a summer debut with Sony back at her birthday party event in February.  But at that time, there were no details given.  Now, we were told that her major debut would be on August 24th with a single titled “Kuchi no warui onna.”  I suppose there are many ways you could translate this. For now, I’ll go with “A sharp-tongued woman” as all of the other ways I thought of had too negative of a feel.  Of course, the title drew a laugh from the audience as we all know exactly how well this title fits Ai Shinozaki.  On stage, it was joked that the title may as well have been “A woman who loves to eat” as Ai is constantly posting pictures of the food she eats on her social media accounts.  Alas, that title was deemed not catchy enough. 

Fans at the event got to see the first performance of this debut single and it is certainly catchy.  It is a Latin-flavored upbeat pop song with a catchy chorus that all of the fans can sing and dance along to.  The lyrics certainly are sharp-tongued and are certain to amuse both old and new fans alike when the song is reveled to the public.  For now, I will leave it to you to imagine the sort of lyrics that could go along with an outfit as passionate as the one above.

To finish off the event, Ai sang one of the most popular songs from her mini-album released last year, titled “Memorize.”  And then we were given postcards on the way out with hand-written messages thanking us for coming and supporting her.  It was a very enjoyable night and I am certainly looking forward to seeing where this major debut takes her.

-Rin Rigoni

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