Piece of 5ive Elements Photoshoot Comments

Chapter 1: The Kindling Flame

From Shou

Now this is Hiroto--In an attempt to embody the image of an old school style guitarist, and undertake various elements but at a higher intensity that would flare up and boil over, he is quietly bursting into flames. When trying to put it all together I thought, showing an adult image is just fine, but said "You'd have more fun if you showed off a bit of your mischievous side as well." That's the kind of message we wanted to convey. The quietly burning feeling, and adding a bit of mischievousness to mix things up a bit, that's the style of art Hiroto likes. The great thing about him is his ability to convey it all perfectly. I also wanted to somehow express a little bit of the part of Hiroto that's still shrouded in mystery.

Hiroto's Comment

Usually, there's always some bit of departure from the original idea of each photo shoot, but due to the sensitive nature of this and Shou's ideas, we kept it 100% as he envisioned it. When we're doing work like this, it's our most outgoing. Doing up our hair, our makeup; making music is like this as well, but with this, you can come up with something different every time, something unusual, and you can express yourself. It felt like we were putting together something amazing, it was so much fun!

Especially since I had a guitar with me, it just made everything click. What with it being the band's 5th anniversary, and our third album VANDALIZE coming out, I think this is a perfect piece of work to celebrate such milestones.

Chapter 2: Helter Skelter

From Shou

Lately Saga-kun has taken initiative in music so I decided I should thoroughly pursue my domain, this territory. This was my cue, and I came up with this set up. Saga-kun naturally emanates a good mix of Western-like rock spirit and dirty sexiness so the set has a high quality feeling. He also has an amazing self-confidence. I thought it would be good if we would be able to express that. We received a lot of love from everyone including staff at the filming location, also there was good chemistry so Saga-kun's good points were shown. I think you can see his charm that comes not only from his beauty and sexuality but also from distress and his human weakness.

Saga’s Comment

It was the first attempt at exposing my everything without hiding or twisting anything but I am not worried. Shou-kun and the staff, everyone around me was so serious so I had to meet everyone's expectations. In my case we did it differently from the other members. I’ve also been wondering how it would come out if I get wet. (laugh) At first I was going to decline Shou-kun’s request but along the way the people around… changed my mind. (laugh) I’ve been nervous and I thought I’d only avoid this one but as we were filming I felt as if… I’ve entered my own world. (laugh) But such a way of taking pictures felt good.

Chapter 3: Abyss Garden

From Shou

As I was planning this project I thought “wouldn’t this kind of Nao-san would be cool?” so I wanted to propose it to him and everyone else. I was able to do it by borrowing everyone’s strength, taking pictures with kitsch and surrealistic feeling. Nao-san has a high nose and forehead, also his face is sculpted and nicely shaped. The model girl is too cute and I was worried whether it would go well but Nao did not lose to her as a model. He’s a very prudent person but I think it’s good to be able to bring his good points more and more. I will be happy if you’ll be able to see the gap compared to his usual self.

NAO’s Comment

I look the most different compared to my real self? That’s right. It’s true that I don’t like it when my face stands out but it seems like it really is sculptured. Well, if I were to create an image for myself that I like I would have gone for the opposite. This time it’s the opposite of how it usually is. Maybe for a moment you won’t be able to tell whether that’s me. (laugh) But it’s really my face. But it’s different to the one you all see. It made me feel uncomfortable but I’ve never such an opportunity I didn’t want this fresh feeling to end. (laugh) It’s something I would never do myself but it would be good if an image of me different from the Nao you’ve seen shall be conceived.

Chapter 4: Vainglory

From Shou

Nowadays there are a lot of men praised for being ikemen, but among those Tora really stands out. There are people who are attractive irrespective of their gender…

I was thinking of a modern Sid Vicious. The imbalance of such a character and perfect looks is very good. I deliberately wanted to do something unacceptable and so unlike Tora. Actually he’s a hot-blooded man. At the time when we met almost every day he would talk about his dreams. I think since there’s Hiroto Tora has also found a balance so there are times when he gets unusually excited. You can really say we’re like a family, we’re like 5 brothers. It’s really how it is. I wonder if (with this photobook) we were able to show an unexpected side of us, different to public image.

Tora’s Comment

Shou-kun was able to bring out my real self… It’s true for this photoshoot. He knows everything about me so of course I think this kind of photoshoot is amazing. For me it’s always this way but here you can see things that couldn’t be expressed in other photoshoots. So it was like a challenge, to bring out the parts of me close to real life. On the contrary, my true nature is this. (laugh) It has been revealed! I’m a man on the edge! (laugh) Truth is, I’m quite a hot-blooded man but the other members are too so it’s not really weird. I want everyone to get to know me soon. I think you will be able to see the real me.

Chapter 5: Trip to the Conscious and the Unconscious

Shou's Comment

As I was thinking very reasonably (about the concept) intuitively I got this image… of me swimming in the sea of thoughts. I like the colour of water and the image of sunlight penetrating into the sea, I like the colour scheme so I thought it would be really cool if I could combine myself with such imagery. (laugh) With the photoshoots of other members I thought “If I do it like this I can show his good points” and it was done right away but with my own it was hard. But as I tried it I thought I should bring out my individuality.

Creditos: alisteners, swoon21