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The story
Tsubaki Factory idol Nishimura Itsuki became a hot topic on the thread after instantly answering the question “What zodiac sign would you like to be?” with “Actually I’m a Scorpio” and then “Who cares.” Her deadpan dismissal of a question from a fan of the Saint Seiya generation went over well, and “who cares” ended up being used like a catchphrase for the rest of the thread.
Thread participants found her cold response amusing, while some also compared it to how other group members typically handle similar questions.
What people said
① Is there a zodiac sign you'd like to be? I admired Sagittarius after seeing a hero based on the zodiac signs.
Tanimoto: Actually, I'm a Scorpio
Had no idea, thanks Itsuki
Taurus wasn't popular either, but it was still better off
She's got a great character
It's just way too trivial to care about
Itsuking: "Who cares"
Nishimura: "Bronze [dou] would do" (a pun — "dou" echoes her catchphrase "dou demo ii," meaning "who cares")
Meaning she saw right through it as a question nobody's genuinely interested in
The day someone answered "favorite shape of the moon" with zero pushback, I thought I'd been transported to another dimension
Who cares lol
Gives me chills lol
If she only got chatty when the topic was "Byo" (a nickname; referent unclear), I might actually fall for her
couldn't care less about any zodiac sign except their own lol
Is she just not motivated, or not cut out for this?
and "either way's fine" on the guys-with-beards question is, in a way, the ideal answer
So Nishimura's just cold across the board, huh
Is that specifically an act for Tsubaki (Factory)?
Sharp kid, that one
She'd be ready to go on Young Town — or variety shows in general — right out of the gate
That psychology-quiz guy's questions are seriously boring
And yet he calls his own and other people's mail "trash" — unforgivable
Background and Key Points
Tsubaki Factory is one of the subgroups under Hello! Project, the idol management umbrella behind Morning Musume and its sister acts; it debuted in 2015 and, like other H!P units, runs regular “fan mail” segments at live events and on radio/blog content where audience-submitted questions are read aloud and answered on the spot. Nishimura Itsuki, referred to in the thread by her nickname “King” (from Itsuki → Itsuking), is a member of that group. The fan’s question invoked Saint Seiya (known abroad as Knights of the Zodiac), a hit 1986 manga/anime whose heroes are modeled on zodiac constellations; the show’s fanbase skews toward older male viewers, which is why posters flagged the question as coming from an “old geezer” rather than a typical young idol fan.
The thread wasn’t really divided over whether her line was funny — nearly everyone found it a clean punchline. The actual disagreement was over what it says about her: some read “who cares” as spontaneous wit worth turning into a recurring bit, while others (post 44, 46) wondered whether her flatness reflects genuine disengagement or low motivation, and whether that coldness is a persona specific to Tsubaki Factory rather than just a joke.
What outside readers may miss is the wordplay in post 21: her answer about wanting a bronze medal (“dou”) echoes “dou demo ii” (who cares), a pun no one in the thread bothered to spell out. Also unstated is that fan-mail segments like this are a long-running idol convention, so her curt answers land as a subversion of an expected, cheerfully earnest format.
*This article is compiled and summarized from the 5ch (Hello! Project) thread “[Great News] Nishimura Itsuki Answers Fan’s Pointless Question with “Who Cares” wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.”
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