The Next 'Demon Slayer' is Sutopuri? Who is this 'faceless' mysterious unit which junior and senior high students are crazy about?
The original interview article can be found here or here (both are the same, only different website). This interview is to commemorate Sutopuri's 3rd full album, 'Strawberry Prince'. Disclaimer: I'm still a novice translator, hence my translation is not 100% accurate.
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Have you heard of video distribution entertainment unit "Sutopuri"? They are a six people group (Satomi, Root, Colon, Riinu, Nanamori and Jel) who mainly active on video streaming sites such as YouTube and Nico Nico Douga and have been ranked as No. 1 in "Best YouTuber 2020" selected by teenage users. They are an entertainment unit that has gained a huge following among teenagers.
The other day, I decided to keep with the times and went to see the movie 'Demon Slayer: Infinity Train' without reading the original manga. "Next is Sutopuri", I muttered. I quickly googled "Sutopuri" but I couldn't find any pictures of them. All that was displayed were illustrations of the members, "Is Sutopuri characters from an anime?" I asked my niece, who just started junior high school this year about this question and she said coldly, "The Sutopuri members are represented by illustrated characters. It's impossible to find their pictures. It's a common sense". While complaining to my wife, "It's hard to catch up with the times," I was completely interested in Sutopuri. In this case, I'll try to ask the person directly and request an interview. In the end, I got a reply "The leader Nanamori will respond to the interview".
Do STPR members really exist? And, who exactly are they? We spoke with Nanamori-san (25) who is the leader of the group and representative director of STPR, the agency to which the group belongs.
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—I'm sorry for asking such a rude question out of the blue, but you really exist, don't you?
Of course. Not only me, but the other five people are also real (laughs).
—In the first place, why did you use only the illustration without showing your face?
I was in my third year of high school when I started to be active on video distribution sites. When I was in elementary and junior high school, my school had already started to educate us about Internet literacy, and we were taught that it was dangerous to expose our faces unnecessarily on the Internet. I was a minor at the time, and I simply thought it was dangerous to "expose your face on the internet unnecessarily".
—You have been showing your face at live performance, but do you have any plans on showing your face outside of live performance in the future?
Since the beginning, Sutopuri has always had the same belief: 'listeners come first'. For us, live performances and handshake events are special places where we can meet our listeners, so we've always participated as we are. If the listeners want to see more of us and happy to see us, we may increase the number of times we show up but we don't have any plans at the moment (laughs).
—How do you make the illustrations of the members?
We ask the illustrator to draw the members with details such as their height and personality. We also change from month to month, so the illustrations are renewed several times a year.
—I heard that Sutopuri was formed by Nanamori-san. Please tell us why you formed this unit.
After graduating from high school, I once stopped delivering and worked at a certain job, but I always wondered if that was really what I wanted to do. It was hard for me to receive direct gratitude from people. Even though I received recognition in the form of numbers and money, I didn't feel like I was helping anyone, and there was a time when I wondered if I really wanted to continue doing this job. When I look back on my life up to that point, the most fulfilling time was when I was doing live streaming, when I received direct words of "thank you" and "that was fun". So in March 2015, I decided to start live streaming again. At first, there were only a few listeners who came to watch me, but the number gradually increased to about 2,000 listeners. After almost half a year, I held an event for the listeners to gather. I was so happy to be able to deliver my activities that I had been doing only on the Internet to people in real life, and to hear "thank you" and "that was fun" directly from the people who came. I wanted to deliver this fun activity in even more ways. That's how I felt, and I began to think that it would be really interesting to create a group of people who were active in various genres on the Internet.
—So those thoughts led to the formation of "Sutopuri", wasn't it?
Yes. I talked on the phone with about 200 people from Hokkaido to Kyushu who I had connected with online. As I communicated with all of them, we began to get to know each other, thinking things like, "This person is a good singer," or "This person doesn't tell lies," and about two months later, I told them that I wanted to work with them and in June of 2016, I formed "Sutopuri" with activists who shared my feelings.
—Now, the number of YouTube subscribers has grown to 1.1 million, and it has grown into a popular unit that is watched by more than 50,000 live broadcasts. What do you think is the reason why you have gained such popularity without your face, unlike most idols or celebrities?
Our voices and personalities can be conveyed without showing our faces. The listeners who love us don't even know each other's faces at first, but they connect with each other online and come to see our live performances together or exchange goods. I think a big part of it is that the listeners enjoy communicating with each other through Sutopuri. We don't belong to any big agency or record company, and since we only had a few listeners, we've been thinking about what we could do to make our listeners happy from the very beginning. As we continued our activities, the number of people who came to watch our broadcasts increased little by a little, and we gradually came to be known by many people. That is why the listeners have a strong feeling of gratitude, "Thank you for finding us!", and we're happy that we make the listeners happy.
—You keep on repeating "I want to make the listeners happy" but it's because you really want to do that, isn't it?
Yes. This is something that all the members will never change. No matter what happens, we don't want to do anything to betray our listeners.
—The members are all in their twenties, and it is said that 90% of their fans are women. Isn't it possible that they want to get themselves talked about and pampered by women?
I don't show my face to begin with, so I don't get myself talked about... (laughs). Even if we were to be in such a situation, we don't really want to be pampered, we have more important things that we want to prioritise. The six of us, who were nothing, were able to gain the support of many people through the video distribution that we had been enjoying. The feeling I get when listeners say "thank you" or "that was fun" after watching our videos is very powerful for me, and I will never forget it. That's why my first priority is my listeners, and my honest feeling is that I don't want to betray my listeners.
—In addition to be one of the members, Nanamori-san also has a the position of representative director of the agency to which Sutopuri belongs. Isn't it exhausting?
Back in the summer of 2017, I announced in front of my listeners that I would no longer be performing live performance. After all, it's very difficult to be both a performer and a backstage person. I was doing most of the behind-the-scenes work, from daily activities to musical activities, so I felt like I was living the life of five people by myself (laughs). Compared to the other members, I didn't have as much time to practice singing and choreography... I guess you could say I had no choice because I was doing so many different things, but there was a time when I was worried that I wasn't qualified to stand in front of the listeners with my heart on my sleeve. When I shared my thoughts with the listeners via live streaming, I received a lot of nice comments such as, "I want you to perform in any way you can" and "A live performance without Na-kun is not a Sutopuri live performance". It was thanks to the listeners that I was able to go as far as I could.
—After overcoming such a crisis, Sutopuri is now supported by many fans as a video distribution unit, sometimes sings the theme songs of popular TV anime and also active as a voice actor. What is the job title of Sutopuri anyway?
We're called a video distribution entertainment unit, but actually, it doesn't really fit. We're willing to try anything as long as it makes our listeners happy. We do live radio broadcasts, post videos, sing songs, release CDs, do live performances, play games, and so on... Our activities are so diverse that it's hard to describe them in any one way. I think the fact that we don't have a title is one of the things that makes us unique, or perhaps one of our charms.
—Do the members get along with each other in private?
I'm into bowling now, and I practice at least once a week.... Recently, I had a secret training session with Jel-kun and Riinu-kun. I guess the secret training paid off, because my score went up from 50 to 140 (laughs). We rarely have quarrels among the members, but we have had heated arguments over planning and live performance. For example, Root-kun would argue about the music, Satomi-kun and Colon-kun would argue about the video streaming. However, it doesn't turn into a fight and I am the coordinator in such cases.
—Please tell us about the future plans of Sutopuri.
As I mentioned earlier, I'd like to continue to try anything I can do on the internet to make the listeners happy. Right now, we are considering live broadcasting of 3D characters. We would like to do a digital live broadcast where our 3D characters move and sing at the same time as we perform in real life. I don't think anyone has done something like this before, but technically it is possible, so I'm hoping to make it a reality by the summer of 2021. I'd also like to create a place where listeners can exchange goods without worry. It is still possible to exchange goods on the Internet, but it is not uncommon to fall victim to fraud. That's why I want to create a place on the Internet where people can exchange goods with peace of mind.
—On 11 November, the third album 'Strawberry Prince' was released.
I recommend all the songs, but I especially like the 19th song, 'Feel Free!'. In this day and age, I feel that many people have created their own places and personalities on social networking sites and in games, separate from their real world selves. It may be a very comfortable place to be. However, I feel that by settling down there, the distance from the real world will become more and more distant, and if we continue as we are, we will surely lose something. I'm very happy that there are units like us that are active on the internet which people enjoy it. However, if you don't want to go to school, for example, and you spend too much time away from reality and being another person on the internet, you will probably feel sad when it becomes difficult to return to reality. That's why I'm singing this song with the message that even if you're facing difficult events in the real world, it's okay to be free and not pretend to be something you're not. I would be happy if I could push everyone's back or encourage everyone even a little.
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To support Sutopuri, you can stream 'Strawberry Prince' album via Spotify/Apple Music or buy the physical album in CDJapan. Thank you for reading :3
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