Ohno Satoshi - Power Vocals Hide Behind this Quiet Exterior

No, I didn't think this pre-pubescent looking
guy was actually the leader of Arashi when I first joined
the fandom either. He's just too... pretty!

The leader of Arashi may have come to this position by a chance game of janken (rock-paper-scissors), and his leadership may be decidedly lazy and unassuming on their variety shows and interviews, but the moment he parts his refined (almost girly) lips at any musical performance, you will understand why all the other members stick firmly to the leader they chose way back in 2000 on Shonentaimu. His voice is just...heaven. When I first got into Arashi, I identified Ohno as the "voice of Arashi" because his was the one I heard most; he had the most solo lines and even in choruses I got the feeling that the sound engineers upped the weight of his voice in relation to the others. Not that I blame them. Ohno's voice is like that fine whirring engine that knows how to respond to even the slightest change in pitch or power. His control is fantastic and unrivaled in Arashi (and I'm tempted to say, in all of Johnny's, but I won't because I'm not actually familiar with all Johnny's idols), and it just soars so beautifully wherever Ohno pilots it.

But let's backtrack, lest you think that Riida is just a pretty face with a pretty voice. He is talented, yes, and often acknowledged as the most talented in Arashi, but there is so much more to him than mere talent! His absolute passivity makes him quite a character in the industry. I mean, how often do you see an idol not say a single word on screen for 28 consecutive minutes on a game show that he is co-hosting? Or a celebrity who generally looks like he's ready to fall asleep when he's supposed to be interviewing/entertaining a guest on his own band's show? Ohno Satoshi may be the eldest in Arashi, but when he's not in his element on a performance stage, he is quite content to let everyone else take care of the business while he enters his wordless state of "nothingness," as he calls it. His clothes (up to the age of 26) were all bought by his mother. Sho elicited quite an affectionate laugh from the rest of Arashi when he revealed that Riida finally bought his own shoes for the first time sometime circa 2006. During interviews and shows, he lets Sho do the talking, and waits to be prompted (by either the other members or the staff offstage) before saying anything. Even at concerts, he (and the ever air-headed Aiba) sometimes forgets a costume change cue and relies on MatsuJun to nudge him into action.

Nino's never too far away from his beloved touching toy. 

Why does everyone just do all these things for him, you might ask? Why do his bandmates feel such a need to pamper their leader like he's a baby? And why do millions of fans' hearts melt at that sleepy, blank stare? These questions probably have complex answers, but my intuition is that if there's one thing people love more than an incredibly gifted artist, it's an incredibly gifted and humble artist who shies away from the attention. And of course, the more he shies away, the more attention you want to give him. So our Oh-chan eventually ends up not only debuting, but also pushed to the forefront as Japan's top idol group's leader.

Basics
Born Nov. 26, 1980 in Tokyo. Is one of the shortest members of Arashi at 166 cm (take this with a grain of salt, since reported heights are often different from actual heights). And I say "one of the shortest" because I'm never sure if it's Nino or Ohno. Has an older sister. Joined Johnny's in Oct. 1994 and spent a lot of time in Kyoto for the stage play Kyo to Kyo during his junior days. Nicknames: He's mostly addressed as "Riida" (the Japanese way of saying "leader"), though there was a period in the mid-2000s when his bandmates liked to call him "Captain." Sakurai likes to call him "Ohno-san" or "Satoshi-kun" while Nino and Aiba are perfectly comfortable calling him "Oh-chan" at times. Fans also lovingly refer to him as "Oh-chan."

Appearance

Ohno with bangs. OMFGsafsglibrvle!!!

Ohno is beautiful in a soft, effeminate way. He has very refined features, with lovely thin brows and a cute little mouth and very gentle sleepy eyes. His skin has gotten darker in recent years because of his fishing hobby, for which he was scolded by the staff since they couldn't find make-up dark enough to suit him. So sometimes he likes to self-deprecatingly call himself an "ojiisan" (grandpa), a term Nino was quick to catch on to. He generally likes to keep his hair short (except for when he was a junior and had long straight hair!!) and doesn't really bother with changing hairstyles unless he needs to for a drama role or something. There is wide consensus among fans that Oh-chan with bangs is a dead-set drool-trigger; I'm convinced he can melt hearts with just one blank-faced look. He's often seen with hair dyed light brown or orangish, but once he hit his thirties he seems to have settled for the plain black salaryman style. It's also known that one of Ohno's lower teeth juts backward in a pretty obvious fashion. You can see it sometimes when he sings or opens his mouth really wide. It makes him look even more like an adorable baby.

Personality

Ohno and Aiba are very similar in certain ways, enough to make Japanese fans nickname them the "tennen combi." They're both approachable, and if I were to guess who else in Arashi would get called out on the street without an honorific after their name, it would be Ohno. He's a celebrity that acts so normal. People might be intimidated by Sho's educational credentials or by Jun's aloof, superstar coolness, or by Nino's sharp wit and even sharper tongue, but it's so very hard to be intimidated by Ohno. He may have heart shattering vocals and dance moves to rival Korean boybands, but his quiet, supportive presence seems to have a recuperative effect that cancels out any intimidation one might feel when approaching someone with so much sheer talent. As I said above, his humility is such that one gets the unsettling feeling that he might actually be embarrassed by all the attention he's been getting, which of course ends up firing to max intensity the maternal instinct in every fan's chest. So everyone ends up thinking "aawwwww, look at him, so shy!" and pampering him, and making sure he's comfortable, and secretly wanting to pinch those tanned cheeks, and maybe putting a kiss or two on that little scar on his face, too... But naturally, no one actually gets to do that (in public) except his bandmates, and it's mostly Nino who actually takes advantage of it.

Oh-chan's humility is very real, though. Whenever he reflects upon his debut, and in interviews done shortly after Arashi's debut, he will reveal how insecure he was about his popularity with the fans. He had spent a lot of his junior days in Kyoto doing a stage play, and therefore he wasn't as well exposed as the other four who all were frequently seen on Johnny's Jr.s TV programs in Tokyo. He would spend a lot of time answering fan mail and would always feel gratified at the sight of his uchiwa at concerts. He has admitted that he used to read what people wrote about him online in the early Arashi days, and that he would feel really happy knowing there was so much online support for him.

Ohno in his junior days

He was in noticeable discomfort on the memorable Shonentaimu episode when the other four all said they wanted him to be leader of Arashi (his exact words were "Yabai!") and he tried to push the leadership onto Sho, because he thought Sho was more hardworking and capable. He really tried to worm himself out of the position, but the Shonentai sempais pretty much forced it on him. Thank God for the sempais! Nowadays, it's hard to imagine anyone doubting Ohno's spot in the top ranks of the Japanese entertainment industry (I mean, not even a wickedly pervasive rumor about a threesome and marijuana use could touch his popularity because fans know how to deal with gossip rags these days), and Ohno himself has embraced his position as the leader, even acting like one at times (watch the hilarious C,D,G no Arashi openings or how he took it upon himself to be responsible for the unity of the group in the Mago Mago Arashi rowing competition special). Sometimes, he'll even be in the mood to speak up and show the others who's really boss when they're being particularly baka or doing something that's losing Arashi the game in VSA. Most of the time, though, Ohno leads by giving the others free rein, giving rise to the running joke that he doesn't lead at all. People often do point out that it's Sho who answers for Arashi in public, and that it's Jun who directs all the details of their concerts behind the scenes and it's true that Sakumoto are way more proactive than their leader, but it's hard to imagine an Arashi led by anyone but Ohno. MatsuJun has said more than once in interviews and TV specials that he thinks Ohno's relaxed leadership is what allowed Arashi to stick together for so long and become successful. And Sho is always first to defend Ohno's position as leader when any outsider expresses doubt.

Teary-eyed Ohno during
Aiba's letter reading

His gentle disposition is pretty well known around Japan, and other celebrities who guest on Arashi's shows often say the impression they have of Ohno is "yasashii," which basically means kind or tender. He may not be as talkative as Sho or Nino, but he shows his concern for the other members in private quite plainly. His eyes welled up with tears when Aiba read his famous letter in 2004 about the pneumothorax, and he was also the first one in Arashi to give the customary New-Year's money (sort of like the lucky money that Chinese people give kids during Chinese New Year) to his kouhais. Of course, he also gave some to his bandmates since they are technically his kouhais as well, and they bantered about it a bit on TV while he looked embarrassed. Aiba has said that he thinks Ohno is the best person to go to if you need to talk about things with someone, adding jokingly that even though one could never tell whether or not Ohno was listening, his presence alone gave a sense of quiet acceptance and support. When MatsuJun guested on another show, Ohno sent some words of praise for the MC to read out, saying that Jun was "flawless," making Jun blush slightly. Nino, in his 2008 letter to Arashi, thanked Riida for always putting up with them and staying by their sides even when he would rather be alone. Yasashii, ne?

Riida loves to eat, and we all know how basically every Arashi variety show (except for VSA) features food in every. damn. episode. Being the passive person he is, he usually stands to one side and waits to be served. No matter what it is (and they've been confronted with some pretty horrendous foods in the past), and no matter how repulsed the others are by the dish, you can always expect Ohno to be there at the end, patiently waiting to eat it. He has a pretty high tolerance for, well, everything. He can eat really really spicy things (things that make Aiba and Jun cry), and really really weird things (icky desserts, strange food combos, expired goods). And every time after he puts it in his mouth, he will say "Umai!" with a wide-eyed look of surprise and content. It is too cute.

Ohno seem to be a rather private person when it comes to his personal life. In this, he and MatsuJun are similar. For the longest time, no one in even Arashi knew where Ohno's house was located, and his bandmates would also complain that Ohno wouldn't pick up their calls. Ohno replied that he had heard it ringing and just sat there at home, debating whether or not to answer it, decided that he was too lazy to pick it up, and just let it ring on. Ohno, along with Nino, are perhaps the two big lazy-asses in Arashi. Members have joked about how Ohno may choose to end a VS Arashi game quickly on purpose just so he could get out of the studio and have more time for fishing. But of course, that's just a joke, as we all know how hardworking and considerate of the fans Oh-chan is.

There is no way we can talk about Ohno without mentioning Ohmiya SK, the pairing that has captured countless different fantasies in fangirls' minds. Ohmiya SK refers to Ohno Satoshi and Ninomiya Kazunari (see what they did there? wink wink) and was originally just a silly little sketch the two came up with for one of Arashi's early concerts. They would wear identical basketball tanks and shorts, Ohno's being red with a big 'S' on the chest, while Nino's would be blue with a big 'K' on the chest. The ensemble was completed with aviator shades and blue/red scarf tied across their foreheads. Oh, and they also had a giant feather stuck into each scarf. Trust me when I say that this outfit is actually pretty tame compared to the other stuff they wear at concerts. In any case, the duo have made several appearances at Arashi concerts, and the repeated pairing has led to some creative imaginations sparking the idea that the two are... close. They certainly milk it for the fanservice on their shows/performances! Nino is the one who love to touch other members, and Ohno is, according to Nino, the easiest one to touch (possibly because he's too lazy to resist, but also possibly because he likes the intimacy), and we see how Nino touches Ohno's butt, his face, how they enact husband/wife scenes etc etc. It is absolutely hilarious! The Ohmiya moments go way beyond just these little skits during concerts, of course. Watch the Happiness MV to see the two fondling each others faces while moving their hips and looking unbelievably pretty. And despite his general absent-mindedness, Ohno is quite fond of skinship himself, and has touched or kissed all the other members in ways that stop any fangirl's heart. Remember that moment in Kokuritsu when he just kissed Jun on the cheek suddenly? Haha, Mr. Stoic's eyes went even wider than normal in that one moment!

Ohno shares a very close relationship with his mother. We know she buys all his clothes for him, and makes sure he eats properly. He lived with his parents until his mid-twenties, I believe. And his favorite thing to say on national TV on his birthday is something along the lines of "Thank you, Mother, for giving birth to me." He even nudged Nino to say this line for his birthday, haha! Oh, and on a side note, watch out for his pout! It is perhaps the cutest, most effective pout in all history. No one can pout like Oh-chan.

The four stages of Ohno vs Nakai: 1) Taka-san puts the seed of the idea in Ohno's mind; 2) Ohno answers back to
Nakai with some disrespect; 3) Nakai yells, gets up to punch Ohno but the other Arashi members restrain him; 4) Ohno smugly looks at Nakai from the safety of Taka-san's embrace. 

Perhaps in an effort to get the reticent Ohno to interact with the hosts more, Utaban, a music talk show hosted by Arashi's sempai and pop group SMAP's leader Nakai, came up with this long-running gag where Ohno would say something deliberately offensive to Nakai, who would then stand up and try to hit Ohno. Of course, the other Arashi members will all jump up and restrain him to protect their leader at this point. This gag was popular for three reasons: 1) Ohno's innocent, unrepentant expression as he hides behind the sturdy Taka-san following Nakai's outburst; 2) Arashi's other members showing their protective instinct for their leader; and 3) Nakai's pouty and hilarious insistence on being the "sempai." And this gag lasted for sooo long. I think it started around 2004 or something, and from then on, every time Arashi guested on Utaban, we could pretty much expect some Nakai vs. Ohno action. The obviousness of how scripted it was really did nothing to lessen its enjoyability, because everyone loves some playful Johnny's on Johnny's action.

Talents

Ohno bringing it in the
opening of P.A.R.A.D.O.X

Brace yourselves, because this is going to be a fully-loaded post here. Ohno Satoshi's talents are always a long topic. So let's begin with his most prominent one: his voice. Did I already mention how it can "make you fly high?" (Listen to P.A.R.A.D.O.X., I beg you to do yourself this service). I can orgasmically describe Ohno's voice: it's finely tuned, it's steady, it's perfectly controlled from his sexy low range raps in Rock This to the insanely high vocal swooshes in their new P.A.R.A.D.O.X. song. It's got power; every line packs an umpf that's not present in any of the other member's voices, like his first solo lines in Monster, or his many solo lines in Truth.

Oh-chan means business.

Now, let's add some dancing into the mix. The only thing that might be smoother than Ohno's voice is his dancing. He's got the same degree of control over every one of his joints as he has over his voice, which makes every one of his solo performances in concert worth watching over and over again. In my opinion, the best Ohno dance was Top Secret and the best Ohno song was Take Me Far Away. His entire face and body just become so serious suddenly, and you know it's moments like these when Arashi's leader means real business. He can keep his dance really tight and slick at the same time, and all the other members like to praise him for his skills in concert. Sho has said flat out that Ohno is the best in both singing and dancing, while Jun once asked him if he was intentionally dancing with less energy during group songs because he needed to align himself with the other four's dancing levels (lol!). I have noticed that he dances with considerably more effort during his solos, but common sense tells us that someone as spotlight-shy as Riida would probably hate to be the one standing out from the other four during a group choreo. He's the type of person who would be content to shine just when he needs to and then leave all the spotlight to the others. That's not to say he's lazy or lacking in his duties as a performer though, because he works very hard behind the scenes to perfect his moves and has done so ever since his junior days, when he trained like the devil in Kyoto. It's all paid off, of course, and I'm sure he still keeps up with all the exercises up to this day.

Arashi performing Mada Minu Sekai e. Oh-chan is leading it front and center!

Then, there's the artwork. Ohno is the first and only Johnny's to ever hold his own art exhibition. It was called Freestyle, and was quite a success. He even published a collection. Ohno's always liked to draw, ever since he and this friend of his decided to draw Dragon Ball Z characters back in grade school. There was a segment in G no Arashi where Ohno and Sho would both draw the same object. It was hilarious because Sho is known for having zero drawing skills and comparison of their artwork would invariably end in Sho  getting mercilessly laughed at by his bandmates. For his exhibition, Ohno drew a lot of African-looking faces, some were quite wacky-looking! And he also made figurines of the faces, too, designing the hats and other accessories the figurines wore. I don't think he's ever revealed why he was so fascinated with the African face; when asked about it, he replied simply that "it just turned out like this." Ohno has also drawn portraits of his friends and bandmates and given them as birthday gifts. Once on HnA, he was requested to draw a likeness of the guest Becky on the spot, and he did so, filling in Becky's pupils with sunflowers because "it suited her personality." It was quite a recognizable likeness, but Ohno is slightly playful when it comes to art, and made it look slightly cartoonish, like a caricature. Becky was very pleased. Ohno's artistic skills also comes in handy when he needs to design T-shirts for 24 Hour TV. These T-shirts are then worn by Arashi as they host the show and then sold to the general public for charity. The 2013 design has sold over a million shirts, which is a huge record.

Ohno showing off his catch on Utaban.

Ohno is a big fan of fishing. It certainly seems to suit his personality, since he's the type who would enjoy solitude, and he's a very patient person. Once, he was out fishing for 25 hours straight! He would sometimes bring photos of him and his catch to shows like Utaban or AnS, and in those moments, he always seems perfectly alert and talkative. Everyone knows that talking about fish is a surefire way to get the reticent Ohno to talk, though sometimes the other Arashi members pretend to bored with the ojiisan-type conversation. A TV host actually once tried it on Ohno in his quest to "get to be on good terms with Arashi's Ohno Satoshi." He got Ohno talking, but since he picked the wrong type of seafood to talk about (clams), the conversation dried up fairly quickly (haha!). Ohno went fishing a lot during the filming of Maou, something his co-star Ikuta Toma confirmed. Like the rest of Arashi, Toma was a bit worried about Riida getting sunburnt, too. So Ohno started going fishing at night, which was why he always seemed so sleepy during Arashi interviews. Jun seemed a bit exasperated with him, in a fond way. Everyone learned that there is no way to force Riida to give up on fishing! It's really become his "thing;" he introduced himself in English to Hasegawa as "Fishing Leader," and even in his commercial for Hitachi, he is portrayed with a fishing rod, because of course all of Japan knows by now that he is a fishing enthusiast. He has mentioned more than once that he dreams of owning his own boat, and once hesitatingly named that as the birthday present he would like from his bandmates. All of them turned him down, though haha.  More recently, Ohno has been fishing less and less, possibly because of the surge in his professional activities, but he still loves it and can talk about fish and where to find them at length with any of their many guests.

Left: Ohno's English self-introduction. Right: Ohno playing with a fishing rod in the Hitachi CM

Despite his quiet and generally passive attitude, Ohno is quite athletic, and Ikuta Toma has named him as the most athletic person in his generation of Johnny's. Aiba has also mentioned that Riida probably has the best feel for sports in Arashi, too. He has never actively participated in any sports (unless fishing counts!), and confessed to having zero experience in baseball. Yet when a super fastball was thrown at him from a pitching machine during HnA, he batted and struck it... twice in a row! Chou kakkoii ne? Sasuka Riida! It really must be all that dance training that honed such a good sense of physical control... Did I mention that he has a sexy six pac that rivals Sho's?

Ohno's famous pout.

Like Aiba, Ohno was pretty late to the dorama scene, starring in his first drama in 2008's Maou with Ikuta Toma. He had been much more active on the stage than the screen prior to that, and his acting skills are much celebrated, with several awards for different doramas and a GQ Man of the Year to show for his activities in 2011. Maou was an angst-ridden remake of the Korean drama The Devil, and Ohno plays Naruse Ryo, a two-faced lawyer who secretly manipulates people to take revenge on the man who killed his brother many years ago. His acting is so good that I felt chills creeping up my spine from looking into the cold, merciless eyes of Naruse. That character is scary as hell! There's no trace at all of our gentle Riida on this screen. Ohno has since kept up a healthy presence on TV, with Uta no Onii-san in 2009, where we get to see him in colorful cartoon costumes singing children's ditties, and Kaibutsu-kun in 2010, where he plays the spoilt and selfish prince of monsters who gets sent to Earth to learn about love and humanity. Being based on a children's manga, Kaibutsu-kun was a hit among the younger audience, and it didn't hurt that Ohno recorded a solo theme song for the dorama either (he actually recorded a solo song for Uta no Onii-san, too). He even performed this song at one of Arashi's concerts, dressed in his kaibutsu-kun costume. No one in the audience minded that he got two solos, they were probably all drooling over his voice. Kaibutsu-kun was so successful it spawned a SP in 2011, where Ohno got to travel to India for filming. 2012 brought a funny gig, Mou Yuukai Nante Shinai, a TV SP where Ohno played an unemployed man who dreams of being a superhero and ends up fake-kidnapping the daughter of a yakuza boss. I feel like Ohno was playing something closer to what he is in real life here, plus there were cameos from Sakurai and Matsumoto! 2012 also saw Ohno's first getsuku (月九) drama, Kagi no Kakatta Heya, where he plays a sort of autistic genius at solving locked room murder mysteries. Again, it was refreshing to see Ohno just change into such a razor-sharp character onscreen! Recently, Fuji TV announced that Kagi no Kakatta Heya would be returning for a SP in 2014. Cue the millions of rejoicing fans! 2013 is not a big dorama year for Ohno; the only thing he's starred in is NTV's annual 24 Hour TV SP Kyo no Hi wa Sayonara (he's the third Arashi, after Jun and Nino, to star in this project). These specials usually cast a big name star to play a protagonist who is diagnosed with some incurable disease. They're typically heartwrenching life-and-death tearjerkers meant to get people to really reflect on and treasure their lives and health. This year, Ohno plays an ordinary guy who gets leukemia and has only three months to live. I thought it was a beautiful, thoughtful and tender take on how one can face death gracefully, even when one isn't ready to die at all.

Top L: Kaibutsu-kun; Top R: Maou.
Bottom L: Uta no Onii-san; Bottom R: Kyo no Hi wa Sayonara

Generally, Ohno plays roles that are rather emotionally detached. You won't see him in any of those romantic things Jun stars in or in those mushy family dramas Nino does. The mushiest thing Ohno's done so far is Kyo no Hi wa Sayonara, and that was more tender than mushy, the kind of drama that left a lot of things plainly unsaid. The characters he's played are all pretty different, and he's pulled them all off with great flair, to great acclaim. Sometimes, though, I wish the producers would give him something drastically different to work with. Maybe something that is more reminiscent of his Haru character back in Pikanchi, stuttering, shy and innocent, or something that is completely out of his comfort zone, like an action lead or something. Hey, one can always hope, right?

I'll leave you with one of my favorite Ohno get-ups:

^.^