“I think Kat will like Reia.”
To most people in the universe, a statement like that would be welcomed with open arms. My friend, my wonderful and amazing friend, knows my bias type so well that they can predict which member of a group I’ll love? Most people would feel sparkling fireworks of happiness that their friend could predict something like that.
Not me apparently!
Whether it’s from nurture or through the sheer dumb luck of what star sign I was born under, Taurus for those curious, I have always been a naturally stubborn person. If you were to ask my friends to describe me in a word or two, the first word that comes to their mind would be that wonderful stubborn word, but loyal would be a close second.
When my friend sent that message in June of 2020, despite already having a loose interest in Nakamura Reia of 7 MEN Samurai (7 MEN 侍) based solely on his Island TV visuals, my mind immediately started to find reasons of why he couldn’t become my bias upon watching some of their YouTube content.
Reia was too much of a sparkling center type.
I didn’t think he could sing that well.
I thought his speaking voice was too high pitched.
He wasn’t my usual idol type.
His group, as a whole, was too young.
I was already following too many STARTO groups.
The reasons of why I couldn’t be a fan kept piling up, and there was a sick part of my mind that took pride in the fact that I was going to be right. I wasn’t going to be a Reia fan. I wasn’t going to be a 7 MEN Samurai fan. I was safe.
…The funny thing about the pandemic and the wonder of streamed concerts was that it had given me a lot of chances to get to know groups that I hadn’t been interested in and reconnect with others once more. I had rekindled my love of Kanjani∞ (関ジャニ∞), and I had changed my group bias from Yasuda Shota to Murakami Shingo. I fell for former Junior group IMPACTors, now called IMP. under TOBE. I had fallen in love with NEWS’ music and had also watched so many Summer Paradise concerts my wallet was near empty by the time in person shows started to pick up once more.
At the same time, a video was posted to Island TV in August of 2020 that had caught my attention. It was for a reading play taking place in October of that year, and the visuals for it looked absolutely stunning. I was absolutely enraptured by the idol playing the prince and wanted to get to know him more, but I didn’t allow myself that chance. I had enough biases. I spent enough money on STARTO tickets. I didn’t need another.
That resolve lasted barely a month and a half before I returned to watch that Island TV, and the gears in my head started turning. There were still tickets available for the show online through various legal retailers, and it would be easy enough to buy them. I obtained tickets for the first two shows, and I settled into YouTube to learn more about Motodaka Katsuki, the boy I was intrigued with.
It was strange going back to 7 MEN Samurai videos I had previously watched. In my initial attempt to watch videos friends had recommended months prior, I truthfully hadn’t been paying much attention to them. I enjoyed watching the group, yes, but they hadn’t demanded my attention as much as Snow Man’s videos had during the height of my love for them.
This time around, I was obsessed. I latched onto little details and found parts of myself in Katsuki that I identified with. How he was teased by the other members, his joy, his obsession over fish, and the beautiful sashimi he made on Island TV were all parts of his personality that I enjoyed. I was also constantly tweeting that I wanted to eat his sashimi one day despite knowing it was a fantasy.
By the time his and fellow 7 MEN Samurai member Konno “Konpi” Taiki’s reading play came around, I was hooked. My interest in Katsuki was not a “rent to own” type of situation. I had made the final payment, and he was mine. He was my bias in 7 MEN Samurai, and I considered myself a fully fledged fan of the group. The day I spent at Theater 1010 was an absolute magical experience, and I remember yelling at my ex-best friend over how beautiful Katsuki was and how good of a performance both him and Konpi gave.
I was charmed. I had been caught. I was a Katsuki fan, but I wasn’t fully passionate about the group because my heart was claimed by other groups at the time. Whenever 7 MEN Samurai’s next concert announcement came around, I didn’t have money at the time, so I wasn’t able to attend their Summer Station shows in 2021. I was able to attend the next iteration of Katsuki and Konpi’s reading stage, Rock Reading -Robin-, twice, once with a friend and once solo. My solo ticket had been fantastic, dead center in the third row, and that night had been absolutely magical looking up at Katsuki performing.
But my luck for 7 MEN Samurai group work was absolutely pitiful. For many of their backing stage plays and projects, I had little to no interest or hope that I could hit for them over a junior account. Their next concert early in 2022 I didn’t hit for, and I was starting to believe that I would never see the full group in person.
It’s important to say that I had already seen four of the members in person by the time 2022 rolled around. I had attended Ebiza 2020 Oretachi no Ouenya (ABC座2020俺たちの応援屋) in October and watched 7 MEN Samurai members Sugeta Rinne and Sasaki Taiko. Katsuki and Konpi I had seen a week later in their reading play. The only other members I hadn’t seen in person yet were Yabana “Bana” Rei and Reia, and there was a part of me that finally wanted to say that I had seen them all in person.
I also want to be clear that, even watching 7 MEN Samurai’s YouTube videos, I enjoyed watching them all together. At the same time, I had a very clear ranking in my head of whose personalities I enjoyed the most. Katsuki had claimed the king position at the top and at the number six position sat Reia. There was something about Reia that didn’t click with me. His laugh? The way he collapsed to the ground in a fit of giggles so frequently? The way he would be a little too devilish or get out of doing something by pushing it to another member?
I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, and I also couldn’t understand why everyone found him so pretty. Everyone on social media always fawned over his good looks, and I felt like I was missing something that everyone else was seeing. Perhaps I was too blind over Katsuki to see it. I honestly couldn’t tell you, but in my head my opinion about Reia was very clear: Reia would never claim that bias position. It was always going to be Katsuki.
Summer 2022 my luck finally changed when it came to group 7 MEN Samurai work. A former friend hit for opening show of their 2022 Summer Station concert, and it would be my first time seeing 7 MEN Samurai in concert but also finally seeing Bana and Reia in person. I was ecstatic! Finally! I wouldn’t have to rely on the deep dark STARTO underground for performance clips on Twitter or cross my fingers and hope and pray for the possible chance of a concert digest. I was going to be there in person!
To say their concert was amazing would be an understatement. Getting to hear 7 MEN Samurai sing their original songs as well as covers of some of my absolute favorite STARTO songs, looking at you Beat Line by Hey! Say! JUMP, was an incredible experience. I laughed, I cried my eyes out watching their performance of Sexy Zone’s RUN, and, overall, it was one of my favorite shows of the year.
At the same time, there was some kind of switch that flipped in my brain during that show. Looking up at Reia from my place in the crowd…I understood the beauty that fans saw in him. I saw the passion. I saw the love for the fans. I enjoyed him teasing the crowd, and there was a part of me that changed that day. Even if I spent most of the show watching Katsuki perform, the bits where I looked at all of the members made me appreciate all of them, even the one that was in my number six spot.
As the year progressed into fall, I was sad when there wasn’t another reading play announced for Katsuki and Konpi. I had been looking forward to it and had wrongfully assumed that it would be a staple show for them every year. At the same time, I understood Katsuki was busy with school and needed time to devote himself to his studies.
During this time, Reia had a new musical announced for November 2022 called SEVEN -Sinbad Nanatsu no Koukai- (SEVEN－シンドバッド 7つの航海－) that I was, in all honesty, not the least bit interested in. I was not a Reia fan. I didn’t have money to attend a musical for an idol that wasn’t my bias. I still agreed to submit a single ballot for a former friend and I because I expected not to hit for tickets.
I hit.
Sitting on a bench, leeching Wi-Fi off some random high end store in Portofino, Italy, I had checked my ballot during the tail end of my vacation, and I hit. My well thought out plan, my trust in my bad STARTO balloting luck for 7 MEN Samurai, had failed, and I was now roped into seeing Reia.
Of course, I could have let that person take the other ticket. I could have let her trade it away for another chance to see Reia perform. At the same time, as much as I didn’t want to go and see this musical, it was at a theater I hadn’t been to yet. It was for a story I had heard of vaguely as a child. It was another experience to check off on my Japan adventure. I might as well make use of the ticket.
My absolute unenthusiastic reaction to going to Sinbad was very evident. When my former friend asked if I wanted to line up for a pamphlet before the show, I clearly said I wasn’t going to buy one. Besides, the line was long, and it was already too close to show time. We immediately went to our seats and got ready for the show to start.
I remember the beginning of the show, the flow of the music as the band played. I remember the sweet anticipation waiting for the actors to appear when suddenly, like magic, there was Reia climbing up the stairs from backstage to stand upon the circular stage. Five seconds later, I was completely in love.
I know what you’re thinking. “Kat??? In love??? But haven’t you said this entire time how you wouldn’t be a Reia fan?” And that is true. Even as I proclaimed left and right on social media that I wasn’t a Reia fan, I had started to find him increasingly beautiful in private. I would look upon his magazine shoots fondly and find them pretty, but I was a Katsuki fan! I was!
And there is no possible way to describe everything that I was feeling upon laying eyes on Reia in Sinbad. Outfits and wigs and visuals that I thought didn’t look good from online news articles were suddenly absolutely beautiful to me. I was charmed by his smile, his facial expressions. I had never thought Reia’s voice was particularly good, but I found myself eating my own words because his singing voice was stunning. It physically pains me that there is not a DVD or audio recording of the show for me to relive every single song that Reia participated in. When the show finally ended, my first words were, “Holy shit, Reia,” and it was the thing I kept sporadically repeating for the rest of the evening as I flipped through my Sinbad pamphlet I had bought on my way out of the theater.
Within the next week I watched so many old 7 MEN Samurai YouTube videos and found that my entire attitude towards Reia had changed. Things that had once grated my nerves or I hadn’t liked, now made me smile. I laughed more easily at his jokes. I went and bought all of his acrylic stands that I could. I found everything about him so utterly charming and perfect, and, hardly a month later, I couldn’t deny it any more.
I was a Reia fan.
Since that fateful November day, the amount of Reia experiences I’ve had is absolutely astounding. I’ve seen him perform in Ebiza 10th ANNIVERSARY Johnny’s Densetsu 2022 (ABC座 10th ANNIVERSARY ジャニーズ伝説2022), gone to eat at a restaurant he ate in for his role in The Way of the Hot & Spicy (ゲキカラドウ), watched far too many performances of his musical, Daddy, made a wonderful dinosaur themed uchiwa for him, and had so many wonderful memories at 7 MEN Samurai’s Summer Paradise concert, Make 侍 Noise (Make SAMU Noise), this summer.
Most importantly, I will always remember Reia’s expression when he saw me for the first time, how much joy I had in my heart seeing him perform at Summer Paradise this year, and the way he pointed at me as I danced and sang along to I Scream Night with him. These memories have become pillars of my STARTO life, and I wouldn’t trade them for the world.
At the end of the day, Reia had managed to wiggle his way into my heart. He is a wonderfully crafty individual and I love every facet of his personality and performance style as 7 MEN Samurai’s front man. I think he’s an incredible individual and, despite my stubborn start, I’m glad I eventually came around and realized how wonderful he is.
To anyone who has reached the end, thank you. This has definitely been an absolutely wild ride that I’ve taken you on, and I wish to part one last piece of advice. Do not take the slow burn approach when it comes to biasing idols like I have. Things are so much better when you admit your friends are right!