Our Little Idol is Growing Up!

New Rina Koike Interview!

Rina Koike (Sailor Luna in PGSM) sure is rising in the Japanese Idol World! She has released a few Idol DVDs , photo collections, appeared in a few shows and has learned all about being an idol from Yuuri Morishita. Now she is appearing on Kamen Rider Kiva as Shizuka Nomura, a preteen girl who learns how to play the violin from Wataru (who is this season's hero). She gets very jealous of other women who are around Wataru, and is one of the few who knows his secret superhero alter-ego. Oricon has an Idol feature (the name of this feature has something to do with hatching golden eggs?!) every week, and two weeks ago Rina's profile was featured! Rina always smiles, as you can see from the Polaroid that was taken above (which she autographed).

Some Highlights:

☼ Just because Rina is busy with her career, doesn't mean she doesn't have time for school! She is known to open up her books and study in between takes on her new show - it is a struggle to keep up!

☼ Rina was in the fifth grade when she got the role of Sailor Luna in PGSM. Rina was trying to become a young idol, and gave herself a year to make it big, or she was going to quit. Her only work was on a Junior Idol DVD that was not very popular, and commercials for Bandai and Tokyo DisneySea. After many failed auditions, her PGSM audition was to be her last one ever should she have failed. But she didn't, and her star has only been rising since! To this day she believes she would not be where she is right now without PGSM. On a side note, we've read elsewhere that she would have rather played Sailor Chibi-Moon because her favorite color is pink!

☼ Rina was raised in Tochigi, but now balances her time between Tochigi and Tokyo. She was discovered when her parents took her out to Shinjuku on New Years' Eve when she was in the third grade. They were out on a quick coffee stop while they were shopping when she was spotted by someone claiming he was a talent scout. Her father thought it was a joke, until he spoke to the president of the agency to assure that it was in fact real. Since then she has been traveling to Tokyo for auditions, photoshoots, and everything else that comes with being an Idol!

☼ Rina is so dedicated to school, that when Kiva started shooting before the beginning of the school year, she had her books with her! Sometimes when she has to wait for a long time, she forgets to study.

☼ Rina really liked shooting the transformation sequence for Sailor Luna. The directors would tell her how her hands had to be placed, but other than that, she was not afraid to prance around! She thought she had a lot of guts when she shot this part, and she really got to show her character!

☼ Rina may be growing up in Tokyo, but she still has her Toshigi charm. She loves to eat at the same Chinese Frying House that her Grandmother does, and the interviewer remarked that she had a very simple charm about her!