Original publication date: November 4th, 2022 • Link to original interview

index — click to jump to the respective section!

• our carol is a Very Nice Song
• roselia's super painful christmas plans
• roselia's super fancy christmas plans
• The Cooking Showdown
• upcoming lives (EMOTIONal)
• credits & mentions

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Roselia's New Single Interview vol.2 — This Christmas B-side talk turns explosive! "Limousines, Champagne, Dresscodes"

"BanG Dream!" is a continuously evolving girls band project, with various media such as anime, games, comics, and real-life concerts performed by the seiyuu. Roselia, its second real-life band, just released their latest single "Swear ~Night & Day ~" on October 26th, 2022.

ORICON NEWS has come to interview the band members in the advent of their latest release. Continuing from vol.1, we'll dig deeper into the coupling track Our Carol this time. From discussing the song, to "Christmas planning recs", we'll surely show you tons of exciting chatter!

■⠀"What's so special about Christmas?" From such a shocking remark, we begin to unravel the dramatic story behind the song's true meaning.

—— We've been hoping for Our Carol's full-size release since the winter of 2021. As a song reminiscent of winter, it's not only dramatic, but deeply powerful towards the end. Would you recount your first impressions of it?

Shizaki: It's incredibly refreshing.

Nakashima: I thought it was my first time listening to a song that seasonal, personally.

Kudō: I thought "this song has a nostalgic kinda vibe to it" myself.

Aiba: Right from the intro you get the Christmas feel of it, and I'd wanna note there's also a story to the lyrics. In-game, 2D Roselia spend Christmas together, and my character, Minato Yukina, creates this song from those moments... That's the background behind Our Carol.

Sakuragawa: My character, Udagawa Ako, states that she "wants to have a Christmas party with Roselia." And that's when Yukina-san bluntly goes "What's so special about Christmas?"

Kudō: I was so shocked by that, when recording the event story.

Aiba: Yukina hasn't really had the chance to do a whole lot of Christmas-y stuff. That's why she'd say something like "I can't understand what's so special about it."

Nakashima: In my head I was anxiously like, "Yukina, how could you say something like that?" (laughs).

Sakuragawa: Once they've all had a fun time together, Ako-chan asks "Yukina-san, what did you think?" and Yukina responds with "...It was okay, I think." After that, she went ahead and created this song.

Aiba: She expressed her true feelings by pouring them into Our Carol.

Sakuragawa: The phrase "With smiles so tender and mild" is in the lyrics.

Aiba: Yes, tender smiles indeed. Personally, my favorite lyrics in it are "(There's no need to speak) Since I understand" for sure, and then...

Sakuragawa: Say it!!

Aiba: That follows up with "(There's no need to hear)". It's just the best.

Sakuragawa: Preach it!!

Nakashima: One has to wonder how many issues have come about because Yukina didn't properly express her true feelings... (laughs).

Kudō: For sure. Yukina's used to taking everything on, alone.

Aiba: You unconsciously grasp a sense for what feels "normal", and it's only afterwards that you realize it: it's the happy moments which drive that normalcy. These are the feelings written into the lyrics, and as such I feel it's a deeply warm song. That's why I feel that Our Carol is, in spirit, Roselia's truest love song.

Sakuragawa: Uhh... It sounded like we were talking about events concerning real-life us just now, so just to clear things up: from the start of the interview up until now, we've been talking specifically about the 2D characters! (laughs)

■⠀Concerning the real-life band's own Christmas, there's airs of "wishing they had more of a romantic story to tell here..."

Kudō: We have our own Christmas gift exchange too, we've been doing it for a long time now.

Nakashima: We're doing it this year too, right?

Sakuragawa: We definitely are! What should our budget be this time?

Kudō: Up until now we've gone with 5,000 yen for the gifts, but wouldn't it be nice to go all out this Christmas and do it for twice that much?

Shizaki: I think that'd be good!

Aiba: And we just released a Christmas song too, we can celebrate that.

Kudō: True, we can pass around presents as we're playing our instruments along to Our Carol.

Sakuragawa: If we were to swap around presents while doing all that, my arms would just collapse (laughs).

Nakashima: What kinda weird present-swapping game are you two coming up with...

Aiba: 'S okay, we can all be in pain together! (laughs)

■⠀A Christma live, and spending Christmas together as five... from Our Carol, their hopes for the holidays burst forth.

―— With the Christmas season approaching, won't this kind of song strike a chord within those watching you perform it?

Sakuragawa: Yes, we'd absolutely love to perform this for the Christmas season.

Nakashima: It'd be perfect for a solo live held towards the end of the year.

―— We've already talked about exchanging Christmas presents; are there any Christmas plan recs you all may have for our readers?

Sakuragawa: There's one thing I'd like to do with everyone at least once.

Nakashima: What kind of thing?

Sakuragawa: The five of us should go... on a limo ride down the block.

Aiba: Oh, like softblocking?

Nakashima: Well, that's an entirely different word (laughs).

Kudō: Yeah, that's just, unfollowing and blocking people on SNS (laughs).

Aiba: Ah, so that's what it means? Well... let's limo down the softblock.

Kudō: Just say we're "going on a limo ride"! I'd wanna dress fancy with everyone for it though.

Sakuragawa: A dresscode's a great idea!

Aiba: And, like... we could get champagne. (An 80s-style gesture is made).

Kudō: What's with that outdated kinda gesture... (laughs)

Nakashima: We could go on a ride overlooking the Rainbow Bridge. rainbow bridgeee

Shizaki: Oh, stylish!

Aiba: Isn't the Rainbow Bridge itself super old now!?

Kudō: That's fine if it's the Rainbow Bridge though.

Aiba: Eeehh―!

■⠀From neverending Christmas, the topic suddenly pivots to a cooking showdown...?

Sakuragawa: Is there something else you guys want to do?

Kudō: It was a long time ago but, we had a shooting on Christmas. We all baked cookies together, and I wanna do it again. What do y'all think about a cooking showdown?

Shizaki: Eh, a cooking showdown? If we were to have one, I think it'd be a good idea to do it in teams. I'm teaming up with Ako-chan.

Nakashima: Ah, I'm joining Ako's team too (laughs).

Sakuragawa: Actually, I'll be ordering from the sidelines. So the four of you get to split up into teams!

Nakashima: Is that really okay...? Leaving the kitchen to our mercy...

Aiba: We'll bake cakes. We could team up two versus two, and Meguchii can be the judge!

Sakuragawa: Please do not go ahead with this (laughs).

Kudō: Let's do something brutally difficult (laughs). Like a log cake, and something seasonal like a New Year's theme would be good.

Aiba: I can make stew nimono (煮物) . And I can make konjac rolls konnyaku wo kurutto (こんにゃくをくるっと) too. In fact, within Roselia, I'm the second best cook.

Shizaki & Sakuragawa: Ehh!?

Kudō: I can cook too.

Nakashima: I can, too.

Shizaki: In that case, I can cook too... I can cook! (laughs)

Kudō: Meguchii's really good at cooking, she's definitely number one here. After her it'd be me, then Yukki, Nonchan, and Aiai would end up last.

Sakuragawa: Well... have any of you had any confident "Wow!" cooking moments to speak of lately?

Kudō: Yeeees! I baked bread recently!

Sakuragawa: That's from when we went to a baking class together...

Aiba: I see. So, that's why you were so totally confident in your baking for a while?

Sakuragawa: Kudoharu was really good at kneading the dough, to be fair.

Kudō: I was a total pro! But, I am no good with a kitchen knife, so I just cheated it by copying what Meguchii did.

Sakuragawa: Nonchan, what have you been cooking?

Shizaki: Tomato sukiyaki. トマトすき焼き

Kudō: Woah, awesome.

Shizaki: I also peeled an apple!

Aiba: I... cannot peel an apple... (laughs).

Shizaki: So, that means I win!

Nakashima: I can peel stuff too! When I was in school, we did it in class!

Sakuragawa: When's the last time you peeled an apple?

Nakashima: Uh... about 6 years ago.

Aiba: That's a real long time ago! (laughs)

Nakashima: But, I cooked glass noodle salad chuka harusame (中華春雨) recently!

Sakuragawa: I've heard about that before, and you just added in the ingredients and let it stew according to the instructions on the package... (laughs).

Nakashima: Well, the ingredients were all mixed up within the package beforehand, so I didn't really have to do anything special to dump them in myself... (laughs).

Aiba: I cooked capellini capellini too, though? The cold pasta?

Kudō: So you boiled it and cooled it and that's it.

Sakuragawa: Wow... looks like Kudoharu and Nonchan are our winners (laughs).

Aiba: I wish we had more of a "romantic" kind of story to tell here... (laughs).

Kudō: Limousine, champagne, and a dresscode.

Aiba: Let's leave it at that.

Sakuragawa: Yup.

■⠀Shooting for that fabled end-of-year concert with ardent fervor, "Roselia's music will render you speechless!"

―— There's a live coming up before Christmas. The long-postponed "BanG Dream! Special☆LIVE Girls Band Party! 2020→2022" will be finally held on November 12th, at Belluna Dome.

Aiba: This truly is... the concert I've yearned for the most. At the very beginning for "Bandori!", we held a live that included every single band (January 2018's "Garupa Live" garupa live ♥ ♥ worth noting this live was during the days of ogselia w/ yurishii and akeshan! ). And as time has gone by, so many things have just changed entirely. The music has evolved, and all the characters have grown. Now, the stars have aligned for all of us to perform together again and I couldn't be more excited about it. Also, we have song collabs between the bands now, and a song that includes every band at once, so I'm super thrilled about the kind of ruckus that will bring about on stage.

Sakuragawa: We've had a couple joint lives before where two bands collab for it at once, but this time, the entirety of "Bandori!" will partake in a "festival party extravaganza". And to tell the truth, we may have an idea of what each band's setlist will be like... this is a concert that you just absolutely cannot miss out on!

Aiba: What can we expect for Roselia's setlist?

Nakashima: I must simply describe it as "insane". That's the exact thing we were going for, and we're preparing for it with all we've got, so we'd be super happy if you could all look forward to it!

―— Furthermore, Roselia will also perform at the end of the year for "COUNTDOWN JAPAN 22/23" this was a good event :3 .

Aiba: In 2D Roselia's story, the goal they're shooting for is to perform in the music festival "FUTURE WORLD FES", so it was an important goal of ours to perform in a music festival as well. We were actually invited to perform 2 years ago, but the COVID-19 crisis led to the event's suspension... It was the first time we were invited to such an event, so we did wonder if we'd ever have a chance like that one again. As it turned out, we were also invited this year, and we couldn't be happier about it. Getting to see Roselia's name amongst those of such incredible artists was surprising.

―— Please do go ahead and leave those incredible artists shell-shocked.

Sakuragawa: That's... way too much to ask for!

Aiba: There will be tons of people who'll see us perform for the very first time, so to them I want to cry out: "This is Roseliaaaa!"

Nakashima: Wasn't Aiai like, super pumped-up just now!?

Aiba: "This is Roseliaaaaa!" just like that (laughs). I wanna do my best to perform, and show that Roselia's music will render you speechless.

Kudō: Also, in February we'll perform along with Morfonica for "BanG Dream! 11th☆LIVE". Up until now, we've only had joint concerts with RAISE A SUILEN and Poppin'Party, so we're stoked to finally perform with Morfonica as well. Hasn't Meguchii been thinking about this a lot, in particular?

Sakuragawa: Mika-san, who portrays Morfonica's Futaba Tsukushi, has been my drum teacher throughout all these years, and I can confidently call her a master of her craft. Getting to stand together with my teacher, on the very same stage,
here they are at 11th live! they had a drumming duet showcase of sorts it was incredible is an incredible privilege I'm deeply grateful for.

Aiba: In the joint lives held thus far, we've had the chance to collab all together on-stage, so we're already looking forward to what we'll get up to this time around. Morfonica doesn't have a keyboard player, and Roselia likewise does not have a violinist. There's this sort of wonder over the kind of collab it'll turn out to be that we're super excited about.

Sakuragawa: In our September live we mentioned that "it'd be nice to hold a 'school festival' type of live someday". Thus, I personally wish to see the year in which we follow through on our words and turn them into reality. In today's interview, for example, we talked about the possibility of "holding a live on Christmas" and such. Ideas of this sort usually pop up during our yakiniku outings. When we get together for yakiniku, there's one of us in charge of writing down notes for this kind of stuff, making sure not to leave anything out.

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credits & mentions

to whoever's reading this rn i was sooo close to doing these apa style for the bit

1. AuroraSubs: Our Carol TL snippets.
2. AuroraSubs: Rausch subs mention in text snippet. Go watch Rausch I am so serious.
3. BanG Dream! Special☆LIVE Girls Band Party! 2020→2022: Attributed to several fantranslators. Project hosted by AuroraSubs. Please please watch it.