Kazunari Ninomiya

Kazunari Ninomiya (二宮 和也, Ninomiya Kazunari^?, born June 17, 1983), often called Nino, is a Japanese idol, singer, songwriter, award-winning actor, television personality, seiyū and radio host. Along with Masaki Aiba, Jun Matsumoto, Satoshi Ohno and Sho Sakurai, he is a member of the Japanese boy band Arashi, who is under the management of Johnny & Associates. He is best known to movie audiences for his portrayal as Private Saigo in the 2006 Clint Eastwood war film Letters from Iwo Jima.

Biography

Born in Katsushika, Tokyo, Japan, Ninomiya is the youngest child to his parents.^[1] His dream was to become a professional baseball player, but his cousin sent in an application to Johnny & Associates without his knowledge when he was 12 years old.^[1] Although he received an invitation to audition in the mail, he only went to the auditions because his mother promised to give him money if he did.^[2] He passed and joined the agency in June 1996 at the age of 13.^[3]

During Arashi's early years, Johnny's appointed Ninomiya as the "Performance Leader".^[4] He plays the guitar, bass, piano, drums, harmonica, composes songs and writes lyrics. However, he is usually seen with a game console in hand instead and had publicly admitted that he was an otaku when he was an elementary school student.^[5][6]

Recording career

Johnny's Jr.

When Ninomiya joined Johnny & Associates, he was a member of temporary Johnny's Jr. units such as M.A.I.N. and B.B.B. with fellow Arashi members Matsumoto and Aiba and Johnny's Jr. member Toma Ikuta, and B.A.D. with Aiba before the formation of Arashi in 1999.

Arashi

On September 15, 1999 aboard a cruise ship off the coast of Honolulu, Hawaiʻi, it was announced that a new Johnny's group named Arashi, the Japanese word for storm, would make their debut on November 3, 1999. Their debut single, "Arashi", was used as the image song for the 8th World Cup of Volleyball hosted by Japan in 1999 and the group served as special supporters for the competition.^[7] The single went on to become a major hit, selling 557,430 copies in its first week^[8] and almost a million copies by the end of its chart run.

2004 saw the first official release of a song Ninomiya penned and composed himself in Arashi's Iza, Now DVD. Although the group's fifth studio album One was the first of their albums to feature solo songs of each member, Ninomiya did not provide lyrics or music for official release until the Time album almost two years later. In 2007, the group's eighteenth single "Love So Sweet" was released with the limited edition containing a bonus song entitled "Fight Song", which was written by Arashi and composed by Ninomiya in 2006 for their variety show G no Arashi. On July 11, 2007, the Time album was released with the limited edition containing solo song of each member. Ninomiya wrote the lyrics to his solo song entitled "Niji" and played the piano portion of the song throughout Arashi's summer tour (and later reprised the performance throughout Arashi's second Asia Tour in 2008).

In 2008, Ninomiya composed, co-arranged and penned the lyrics for his latest solo "Gimmick Game," which took on a different style compared to his past solos. The song can be found in the album Dream"A"live, the group's third highest selling album to date.^[9]

Acting career

Ninomiya began acting in 1997 on stageplay based on an American coming of age film called Stand by Me with the other members of M.A.I.N.^[10][11] In 1998, he made his television debut as a 15-year-old runaway in the TBS made-for-television movie Amagi Goe.^[11] Almost every year since then, he has been appearing in numerous productions. In 1999, because Arashi were image characters for the 8th World Cup of Volleyball, all five members starring together for the first time in the volleyball-centered short drama V no Arashi.

In 2002, he made his motion picture debut in Pikanchi Life Is Hard Dakedo Happy, in which he acted with the rest of Arashi.^[11] Ninomiya starred in his second movie in 2003 called Ao no Honō playing a high school student who has an abusive stepfather living at home. In 2004, Arashi came together again to reprise their respective roles for the sequel of Pikanchi Life Is Hard Dakedo Happy called Pikanchi Life Is Hard Dakara Happy.

2006 proved to be a productive year for Ninomiya as he became the first person from Johnny's & Associates to debut in Hollywood. After taking up the main role in the special drama Sukoshi wa, Ongaeshi ga Dekitakana, which was based on the true story of young man diagnosed with Ewing's sarcoma, he played a reluctant soldier named Saigo in Clint Eastwood's Academy Award-nominated Letters from Iwo Jima with Academy Award-nominated actor Ken Watanabe. His performance was praised by many film critics, some of which include RogerEbert.com editor Jim Emerson ("thoroughly winning"),^[12] Claudia Puig of USA Today ("also superb"),^[13] James Berardinelli ("another performer worth singling out")^[14] and Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter ("who is just terrific").^[15] On January 7, 2007, New York Times film critic A.O. Scott listed Ninomiya as an ideal Oscar candidate for Best Supporting Actor.^[16]

On October 24, 2006, he debuted as a seiyu, lending his voice to main character Kuro in the Michael Arias animated film Tekkon Kinkreet.^[17]

In 2007, all the members of Arashi starred in their third movie together called Kiiroi Namida with Ninomiya playing the main role of an aspiring manga artist. During the summer of the same year, he and fellow Arashi bandmate Sakurai starred together in the manga-based comedy drama Yamada Tarō Monogatari. Soon after—whilst juggling rehearsals for Arashi's upcoming concerts—he acted as the lead in the special drama Marathon, which was based on the true story of an autistic young man training to become a marathon runner.^[18]

After a year without any acting roles, other than a small guest appearance in bandmate Ohno's first lead drama called Maō, Ninomiya finally took up the main role in the drama Ryūsei no Kizuna with junior Ryo Nishikido and Erika Toda acting as his younger siblings. The three played the children of parents who were murdered long ago by an nameless man. Readers, reporters and critics of the 59th Television Drama Academy Awards panel recognized his role as the oldest vengeful sibling and awarded him Best Actor.^[19]

In spring 2009, Ninomiya starred as the lead in the third and final of TBS's kandō (感動^?) drama series (the first and second being Sukoshi wa, Ongaeshi ga Dekitakana and Marathon respectively) called Door to Door. The special drama was based on the true story of Bill Porter, an American door-to-door salesman who achieved the highest sales for his company despite suffering from cerebral palsy.^[20] His roles in Door to Door and Ryūsei no Kizuna won him the Individual Award in the television category of the 46th Galaxy Awards, a first for a Johnny's talent.^[21]

Other ventures

Ninomiya has his own radio show called Bay Storm since October 4, 2002.^[22] The show is currently airing every Sunday on Japan's BayFM, in which he often plays his own renditions of Arashi's songs as well as songs by other artists.

Filmography

Awards and nominations

Further reading

• 嵐お宝フォトBook Big Wave, RECO Books, ISBN 4-862040-51-9.
• アラシゴト—まるごと嵐の5年半 Arashigoto, 集英社, 2005.7.31, ISBN 408780416X

References

External links

• DramaWiki
• Johnny's Entertainment Official Site
• Jounetsu Tairiku (情熱大陸) Documentary Program on Kazunari Ninomiya (originally broadcasted on May 6, 2007)
• Kazunari Ninomiya at the Internet Movie Database