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When's The Best Time To Scream In Public? Catching Up With Ladybeard At Otakon 2025
🕑 Added 2025-09-10 01:07:16 +0000 UTCNote: Due to time constraints, this will be published on Anime Herald's main site on September 14, 2025. We apologize for the inconvenience.
Author: Lauren Orsini
Editor: Samantha Ferreira
The first time I met Ladybeard in person, we were on a residential block of Tokyo’s trendy Shinjuku neighborhood. With a booming Australian accent and tree-trunk thighs, his commanding presence set him apart. And that’s Ladybeard in casual clothing, little-girl pigtails in place, still instantly recognizable even without his flouncy dress. I interviewed Ladybeard at one of his favorite lunch spots, where he devoured two whole chickens.
Fast-forward seven years, to our reunion at Otakon 2025. Bedecked in pink sequins, Ladybeard is somehow even more muscular than I remember, with that same resounding voice that he puts to good use growling death metal vocals in his unique pop-metal group, Babybeard. He’s flanked by his groupmates, Suzu and Mina (the group’s lead dancer and part-time manager, respectively). Between our meetings, Ladybeard has founded a new group, survived life as an entertainer during the COVID era, and continued to spread joy wherever he goes. I sat down with Ladybeard, Suzu, and Mina at Otakon to talk about their new single “Macho,” their workout routines, and more. Ladybeard and Mina answered in English; Ladybeard was my interpreter for Suzu’s replies. Our conversation has been slightly edited for length and clarity.
Lauren Orsini: Happy belated birthday! [Ladybeard’s birthday was August 3.] Did you turn five years old again?
Ladybeard: Thank you, that’s what I turned! That’s what I turn every time! It’s very convenient. It’s a very convenient age to repeatedly turn.
Lauren Orsini: For the last nine years that I’ve been covering your career, you’ve been five years old. First it was Ladybaby, then it was Deadlift Lolita, and now it’s Babybeard. It’s been Babybeard for a while.
Ladybeard: It has. It’s been five years since we started. Five years of intrepid nonsense. Suzu has been here the whole time. Mina is our newest submember. So this is actually her first time ever being on stage with us. But she was previously our manager.
Mina: I’m still doing management work [for Babybeard].
Ladybeard: She’s the hardest working woman in show business. (laughs)
Lauren Orsini: Could you tell me more about managing Babybeard? What do you do?
Ladybeard: What doesn’t she do? She does everything. She’s pretty much our management. She’s also the producer, effectively. That’s not her title, but it’s what she does.
Mina: All things considered, I think so, yeah.
Ladybeard: So she does literally all tasks. A lot of our logistics, a lot of our communications.
Lauren Orsini: And Suzu, what I remember about you is that you’re a talented dancer, and that’s how you passed the Babybeard audition.
Ladybeard: That, and her winning smile. (laughs)
AH: How has Babybeard evolved in the five years you’ve been active?
Ladybeard: Mainly the person who is wearing blue has changed. [Ladybeard’s image color is pink, Suzu’s is green, and Mina’s is blue.] That’s really been the main evolution. But also, Suzu has developed dramatically because this is her first idol group and she wasn’t doing show business before this, right? So it’s been very beautiful to see her skills and career develop over the past five years, because she came in completely green. Now she’s a seasoned professional, traveling the world and whatnot.
Lauren Orsini: Wait, how many times has the person wearing blue changed?
Ladybeard: This is number three. It’s a challenge, as it turns out.
Lauren Orsini: Let’s talk about the brand new material you debuted at Otakon.
Ladybeard: We have a world debut on Sunday! For a song that, until we did our VIP dance workshop two hours ago, no human beings outside our team had heard. “Macho!”
Lauren Orsini: I can guess from that title what it might be about.
Ladybeard: Yeah! It’s not for people who like sitting.
Lauren Orsini: Here at Otakon, have you had any notable interactions with fans?
Ladybeard: We led a VIP dance workshop. I hope it went well! I’m not a teacher.
Mina: It was tough, wasn’t it?
Ladybeard: Usually we learn everything from our choreographer. It’s a whole different thing teaching. We didn’t have a mirror or anything… I started doing everything the wrong way. I realized why: normally we’re looking in a mirror.
Lauren Orsini: How long does it usually take you to learn the choreography for a new song?
Ladybeard: The girls are very fast.
Suzu: Two days, I think.
Mina: I find myself in an interesting position. When I watch it in a video, I can learn the dance in one day. When I have a real life dance lesson, I would say, three days.
Ladybeard: I’m much slower than both of them. I take a week or two. For me, it’s just remembering. Once I remember the steps, I’m like, “OK, cool.” But it’s just getting it locked into my muscle memory that I find to be a long process.
Lauren Orsini: How much do the three of you influence each song? The lyrics and so on?
Ladybeard: We’re making an album at the moment, so that process is currently unfolding. Until now, the first songs were done by songwriters. Then the next ones were us working with the songwriter. And now it’s us working with the songwriter for compositions, but we’re totally in charge of the lyrics. Suzu is doing lyrics for one of the songs on her own.
Lauren Orsini: How have your songs changed as you’ve gained more creative control?
Ladybeard: How have the songs changed? I think we’ve tried not to change. We have quite strict rules about how we present ourselves, right?
Mina: I wouldn’t say rules. But we have a specific image of how we want to be. Our group is a very unique genre. Whatever we make has to have specific requirements. Like, every time we make a song, we have a specific theme or message we want to deliver.
Ladybeard: And our songs are dual-language, of course. So that is a whole new dynamic because if one of the lines is in English, it’s a totally different feel if I sing it versus if one of the girls sings it. Same with Japanese. We take a long time getting lyrics done, actually.
Lauren Orsini: What is the specific image you’re trying to create?
Ladybeard: The whole mission of the group was firstly to “happy everybody up.” On top of that, we’re trying to get Japanese pop culture to the world, because it’s so hard to access it if you can’t speak or read Japanese. And even if you can, sometimes it’s hard because it’s very gatekeeper-y. The culture of Japan is so specific. And the style of communication: both with the language and just with the way people communicate. That transcends to music as well. When you try to do that—when you try to get all this Japanese pop culture stuff outside Japan—you start to learn why it is the way it is. Once you strip away this cultural level, and you’re trying to communicate in the same way, there’s still a gap that needs to be bridged.
Is this making sense? It’s hard to explain to people if they’re not in Japan. Because once you’re in Japan, especially as a foreigner, you learn very quickly that you don’t know what’s going on. You know that you don’t know.
Lauren Orsini: Tell me an example of a time, as a foreigner, you did not know what was going on.
Ladybeard: Like in my early pro-wrestling shows. You’d turn up in the locker room and everybody would be sitting on one side. So you sit in the empty space, and get told you need to with everybody else. You’re all cramped in together, and you realize later that’s the space for the VIPs—that’s how the hierarchy system works. But you don’t necessarily know why it happens like that. You just know that you don’t know.
Lauren Orsini: It’s been nine years since your breakout hit with Ladybaby, “Nippon Manju.” That song was all about enjoying Japanese culture. It’s been more or less the same message since then, right?
Ladybeard: Yes, that's exactly correct.
Lauren Orsini: Just like your age never changes! But I’ve been wondering if your audience has changed since then. Last time I interviewed you, you told me your primary audience was office ladies who wanted you to bulk up your thighs.
Ladybeard: Yeah, that’s right. That was the target audience during Deadlift Lolita. Now, it’s basically the kids who are into Japanese culture overseas and might not have access. And in Japan, the audience is pretty much anyone who is feeling the vibe, really. (Turns to Mina) Would you agree with that?
Mina: Yeah. You’re getting a more and more young audience, too.
Ladybeard: Yeah, that is one of the interesting things that happens as your career goes on for a long time. I had my initial pop of fame on the internet in Japan. Then Nippon Manju happens and you get that pop overseas. Then I’m on TV a whole lot in Japan, right? But then with COVID, the TV stops and my spot on TV disappears and my spot in the wrestling matches disappears. So you come down in terms of your initial audience, but now, what’s interesting is with the internet, you get more exposure overseas, and on TikTok, you get a much younger audience. So it’s really interesting; there are kids looking at TikTok who are seven years old. And their mums would have been part of my initial group of fans when I first got to Japan. And now their kids are becoming my fans, too. It’s very interesting to watch how these things cycle.
Lauren Orsini: Another thing we talked about in our last interview: I told you to watch Aggretsuko, especially season 3, when she becomes a death metal idol. Did you ever find the time?
Ladybeard: Yeah! I’m pretty sure that Season 3 is about me.
Lauren Orsini: That’s what I said!
Ladybeard: I’m mates with the producer. And I met him before Season 3 came out. So I’ve got a feeling like maybe I inspired the story of Season 3. I love Aggretsuko. It’s great.
Lauren Orsini: Also, when I interviewed you in Japan, you ate two chickens for lunch. No rice. I’m wondering if you’re still bulking like that?
Ladybeard: No, that’s just how I eat all the time now.
Lauren Orsini: For your fans that like working out, I’m wondering: what are your weekly splits? [Splits is a weight training term for activating different muscle groups in different exercise sessions.]
Ladybeard: I do the bro splits: chest, back, legs, arms, shoulders, and I spread that over about two weeks nowadays. It used to be six days a week, but now I space 2-3 days per week as appropriate with the schedule. Legs day is the most important day for me, because I need big legs, and also because it’s the one with the heaviest weights, and it pushes your hormones the hardest. But legs day is also the hardest day to put in because it takes me hours. And of course, you don’t want to do legs and then be jumping around on stage the next day.
Lauren Orsini: What about you, Suzu, Mina? Since the new single is called “Macho,” what are your exercise routines?
Suzu: I do abs every day. Also, I practice our choreography. For the new song, our choreography is pretty much an aerobics routine.
Mina: I’m focusing on my core muscle training because I have to practice my singing as well. I practice doing planks while singing.
Ladybeard: It’s good to work out while you sing. I used to walk up hills while singing when I first started doing this, when I lived in Hong Kong. I’d go out at 2 AM and I’d walk uphill on the side of a highway, because that was the only place and time it was acceptable to scream.
Lauren Orsini: As a group, what are Babybeard’s goals right now?
Ladybeard: Since doing the last EP, we just wanted to do as many cons as we possibly could. And we also wanted to have a specific focus on America. The fans here are excellent. We’ve also toured Europe and did two different tours in Australia. Now we want to get this album done and push those [songs] out to as many people as we possibly can.
