Interview with Popular Twin Dancing Video Sensation “RikaRiko” - Breaking past 100,000 followers!
The impact it gave for the identical twins to appear in the twins category on MixChannel
- How long have you been on MixChannel?
Rika: Umm… probably since second year middle school. We saw that there was a “Twins” category on MixChannel when we were looking through the app, so we thought, “Why not?” since we were twins after all. Our first video was from when the song “Zenzen Wakannai” was really popular.
Riko: Yeah, it was super popular. So when we uploaded it to MixChannel, it even got picked up by “Mezamashi TV” and such.
- So you were a hit from the start!
Riko: It’s kind of similar to how “MakoMina-chan” is really popular right now, how we dance. And real identical twins doing these things is getting more and more popular.
- And since then, the style of your videos has changed. Are there other people you know that upload on MixChannel?
Riko: Lots, I think.
- We get asked a lot, like, what app do you use. Especially on Twitter. I think it’s because MixChannel is easy to use, so a lot a of people are getting into it.
Rika: MixChannel is really convenient because you can take music from your gallery and add it easily, all in the app.
Riko: A lot of fans are girls around our age, but we’d like it if more and more people started to join us in our fun.
- Do you enjoy receiving feedback?
Rika & Riko: Yeah, we love it!
- How do you choose the songs for your videos?
Rika: We try to pick songs that are catchy, or memorable, a lot of popular songs or ones that people saw in commercials. When a new song comes out, the top ranked girls all jump on it and have their own versions. If you come out with one with the same song later, people will be like, “But XX already did this…”
- So, staying fresh is important, then.
Rika: We check for new releases on TV or the internet, and look them up if they’re songs we’d like to do.
Riko: Or theme songs from new dramas, or songs that everyone knows from TV, and stuff like that.
- Regular research is important too, then. Is there a particular time you do your recordings?
Riko: It’s often on Saturdays. Everyone posts stuff of their friends having fun, which happens on Saturdays, so we film and also upload on Saturday. Also, people tend to watch during the evening, so we try and consider the timing of the uploads too.
▲Commemorative photo of pixiv visit, #2: Faces in carnival cut-outs.
- Do you also come up with the dances yourselves?
Riko: We learned to dance as kids, so we like to come up with dances.
Rika: Plus, we like to come up with moves that match the lyrics, but also are easy to learn for anybody.
▲A RikaRiko dance performance at pixiv. How this happened was...
Riko: We like to record it cute and easy to learn, and just having fun in general.
- So for you, part of it’s about trying to get everyone into it, isn’t it?
Rika & Riko: That’s right!
──動画を撮影するときのこだわりがあれば教えてください。
- Tell us about your filming process.
Rika: For the recording, we use an app called “VivaVideo.” We brought our own tripod.
――おお、意外と本格的ですね！
- Wow, it’s surprisingly professional!
Riko: But since this is for cameras, we fix a smartphone tripod on top of it.
- Interesting, sounds like something we can all try.
Rika: Then, we change the background depending on what we’re recording.
▲Actually, we filmed the ”First summer love,” pixiv version!
▲Actually, we filmed the ”First summer love,” pixiv version!
Rika: We try and keep the pictures on Instagram and Twitter separate. Since we do live MixChannel shows on “SHOWROOM” on Sundays, we tell people on SHOWROOM to check out the previous stuff we worked on.
- Wow! That’s good self-promotion. Your goal at the beginning of the year to hit 30,000 followers each was surpassed. How do you think you managed to do it?
Rika: We started to seed hashtags, like, “identical twins” or, like, “retweet if you see the resemblance,” and such.
Riko: I mean, of course we’ll look alike. (lol)
Rika: When we did that, more people started to follow.
- Do you do anything different between Twitter and Instagram?
Riko: On Instagram, we have more fancy, stylish pictures, while we put everyday ones on Twitter.
- Now that you mention it, the Instagram photos have a film-like artsy quality to them. Where do you get the ideas for these from?
りこ：雑誌をみたり、フォローしてるオシャレなひとの写真をみて変えたりします。背景をいま白にしてるんですけど、やっぱり白のほうが見やすいし、かわいいかな、とか。
- So you’re on top of your research. How often do you upload pictures, give or take?
Riko: On Instagram, we try for one every day, and Twitter gets them as soon as we take them.
- Those are individual accounts, aren’t they? Do you use the shared account for “RikaRiko”-related activities?
Rika: That’s right. There’s a lot of announcements for things we worked on.
- Maybe it’ll form a sense of rivalry if you had separate accounts.
Riko: Rika’s first when it comes to everything. It’s kinda annoying sometimes.
- I guess it plays into the whole “older sister” thing.
Riko: But my grades are better.
- I see. But that’s an important thing to be better at!
Riko: Rika’s account reached 30,000 followers before mine. But she’d post saying stuff like “Follow Rico too!” so I got more followers too.
- So I guess it’s still a good-spirited rivalry. What about your parents? What do they think about your growing fame?
Rika: They’re super supportive, right?
Riko: Yeah. Dad does a lot of research for us. He’s the one who found out about the LINE audition for us, too.
▲Dancing in front of the plaque wall!
- So your dad actually gives you advice on things like what’s popular?
Rika: He even tells us what kind of music we should use for MixChannel and stuff.
Riko: But they’re always a little old, so we turn those down. (lol)
- So that’s your dad.
Riko: He’d also ask mom “Doesn’t this take you back?” and then bring up this song that sounds like it’s from the ‘80s.
- The ‘80s, like how?
Riko: Something about bending and tumbling forward, or such. We’re like, that’s not going to catch on.
- Um, maybe it might just… No, you’re right, it won’t.