Chibi-Utahime This vaguely translates to "Little Divas" with "chibi" meaning "little" and "utahime" meaning something like "diva" or "idol". While doing a special Stylist Police segment in Osaka, Go and Nagano ran across an adorable 5-year-old girl. Her hair was bleached blond, her outfit was fashionable and hip, and she looked just like pop star Hamasaki "Ayu" Ayumi. As it turns out, the little girl was a huge Ayu fan, and with little prompting, performed an Ayu song and dance number in the middle of the street. Go-tsun immediately melted and asked to borrow her for a while. Go-tsun wasn't the only one who fell in love with "Chibi-Ayu". The show was soon flooded with requests to bring Chibi-Ayu on again, and V6 was more than happy to spend with the super cute Osakan girl. But everyone was wondering, was Chibi-Ayu totally unique, or was she part of a trend? Chibi-Ayu's mom insisted that her daughter wasn't alone, and introduced V6 to "Chibi-Koyanagi" (after the young singer with a big voice, Koyanagi Yuki). And so, the search for the "Chibi-Utahime" began. V6 travelled all over Osaka and Tokyo with Chibi-Ayu to find other Chibi-Utahime. Along the way, they met little girls (and one boy) aged 4-8 who were Chibi versions of: Morning Musume soloist Gotou Maki, sexy idol Hitomi, R&B diva Misia, Osakan singer/songwriter Yaida Hitomi, female rocker Shiina Ringo, spunky singer Aiko, and the psychotically energetic idol Tomo-chan (Kahala Tomoko). Chibi-Ayu (top shots) was always my favorite. She was cute as a button, a true Ayu fan, a singer, a dancer, but she also had a hysterical tough Osakan attitude. But another favorite were the young sisters (aged 4 & 5) known as Chibi-Puffy, after the relaxed pop duo Puffy (above shots). They were bright and spunky, just like the real Puffy, and their abilities to sing and dance could rival the real duo. They were honestly adorable, and everyone loved them. A final Chibi-Utahime who I really liked was another Chibi-Ayu from Tokyo (below shots). The Chibi-Ayu (Tokyo) wasn't quite as cute, personable, and talented as the original Chibi-Ayu, but she really looked exactly like Ayu in her short haired stage. It was truly amazing. For the 5th year anniversary of Gakkou e Ikou, V6 gathered to brainstorm ideas for a grand project. At Inocchi's suggestion, they decided to produce a CD using some of the Chibi-Utahime, since many of them were 5-years-old and would be starting school soon. Chibi-Ayu, the Chibi-Puffy duo, Chibi-Tomo-chan, and Chibi-Aiko gathered together. Along with Morita Go (who weaseled his way into the project), they became "Go Tarimo and Mini-Curry". With Nagano-kun, they met with their somewhat eccentric producer (known to the kids as "Produ-san") to record their song, learn their dance, and make their video. Produ-san's idea was that everyone, especially kids, loves curry, and so the title of the single became "Koi no 400M Curry" (Love's 400M Curry). The best part of the song writing was the lyrics. Produ-san sent little surveys out to curry houses around the country, as well as to Gakkou e Ikou friendly celebrities. The survey asked all sorts of cute, kid-friendly curry questions like, "What do you like in your curry?" and "What magical incantation do you say when you make your curry?" Then Produ-san picked the best answers and slapped them together to make really adorable, if somewhat nonsensical, lyrics. For example, the first line of the chorus is "Mazaru mazaaru, toripippi." Both of these answers come from the "magical incantation" question, with the first half from a curry chef, and the second half from Okada-kun. ^_^ The girls' moms helped them learn the lyrics, and even though he could have gotten out much faster, Go-tsun agreed to record his parts in the studio with the little girls. Awww, what a sweetie~! The next big step was learning the dance for their single. Mini-Curry worked hard on their little dance, and were all very excited to perform for Go-tsun and Nagano-kun who appeared on Day 2. However, the dance teacher was slightly concerned that Mini-Curry weren't focused enough and wouldn't learn the dance in time. Therefore, Nagano-kun came up with the infamous "Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi" Daisakusen, or "Operation 'Spirited Away'". For those who haven't seen the award winning animated movie, in 'Spirited Away', Chihiro's parents are turned into giant hogs. As part of his plan, Nagano-kun gathered the little girls, and very gravely explained to them that Produ-san had been turned into a pig by The Evil Curry King. The only way they could save Produ-san would be to learn their dance by the end of the day. The little piglet that he brought as a replacement for Produ-san was absolutely adorable, and even the 5-year-old girls didn't seem to buy it. It probably didn't help that Go-tsun spent most of the time turned away, his shoulders shaking with "sobs"... albeit sobs of laughter. But Nagano-kun gave a truly amazing performance. He was very serious the entire time, even when the little pig peed all over the floor in nervousness. After a while, Go-tsun managed to control his laughter and "conversed" with Produ-san (yes, he apparently speaks pig), telling the girls that Produ-san was begging them to work hard and turn him back. Thanks to these two masterful performances, the girls fell for it (in fact, half of them started crying) and they learned their dance. When time came to record the video, the girls cheered as Produ-san turned up, thankful to be back in human form. A happy ending for all. Finally, it was promotion time. The theme of the single appeared to be Go Tarimo as the Curry Maharaja, with Mini-Curry as his Curry Harem. With Nagano-kun, the group appeared on several TV shows to promote their single, where everyone learned a very important lesson: Don't bother writing out your clever promotional dialogues for 5-year-olds. They're not old enough to read Japanese yet. ;-_- Nagano-kun even helped Mini-Curry crash a Coming Century concert (much to the confusion of Ken-ken and Okada-kun). And what was the result of V6's experiment? Well, Go Tarimo & Mini-Curry went to #4 on the Oricon Music Chart. Seriously. For those of you who are horrified right now, I feel that I must point out that it was a DAMNED cute single, and really memorable to boot. (Of COURSE I bought it~!) To this day, my roommate knows Go-tsun as "That guy who sang with the little girls." Back | TV Index