mimimindy

[mimimindy]

A lot of people say the Golden Era of Morning Musume was strict or had bad group dynamics but that usually means they didn’t really know the group back then. The strictness people noticed was more of a 1st and 2nd gen thing, and a lot of it was enforced by their manager to stir up drama for TV. By the time “Furusato” came out, the group had already been through so much, like nearly being disbanded, that it actually brought them closer together.

Sayaka, who used to be so shy she barely spoke, started opening up more, especially around Yuko. She even started speaking up on TV, which was a big deal considering how much seniority mattered. Mari got so comfortable that she'd call out Kaori backstage when she felt something the latter did annoyed her which is something she never would’ve done before “Furusato”. They’d even argue, which just which just showed how much more open communication between them had become.

When Maki joined, the group initially gave her the cold shoulder. Not because they hated her, but because her whole presence, the dyed hair, pierced ears, heavier makeup, went against the image their manager had been enforcing on them. There was definitely some jealousy too. But when “LOVE Machine” blew up, the success bonded them in a real way. They became so close that junior members would straight-up call out their seniors if they had an issue. That kind of honesty might seem negative, but it was healthier than bottling things up and feeling oppressed because you can’t call out bad behavior just because they’re more senior.

Maki ended up getting closest to Sayaka and Aya, and during the “LOVE Machine” era, they’d hang out in private. She later said the only member who initially scared her was Kei but it

was just because of Kei’s rough perm, which had a kind of yanki image back then. They ended up bonding through Pucchimoni, and Maki started calling her Kei-chan.

There was tension between Maki and Nacchi too, but both of them have said they got along even before 4th gen joined. The media played a big role in exaggerating that feud and would publish articles putting one or the other down. Magazines even published leaked purikura of the two hanging out in early 2001, and they used to have sleepovers.

When 4th gen came in, things relaxed even more. The manager had moved on to other ventures, so he wasn’t as hands-on to enforce in group drama. Tsuji and Kago were totally unfiltered, they didn’t use honorifics with seniors, which is the opposite of how the group works today. They pulled pranks on Mari backstage, made joke songs about Yuko, and even teased Kaori using jokes they’d seen on Utaban before their debut.

Things only got strict again when 5th gen joined and Kaori was leader. For some reason, no one really knows why, Kaori was pretty cold to them. Maybe she didn’t think they were suitable additions, or maybe she was influenced by public opinion of hatred against them. There’s even a radio show with just her and 5th gen when they first joined where she doesn’t use their names when speaking them, just calls them “newbies” and seemed disinterested. That kind of distance made it hard for them to speak up or feel like they belonged. There’s a dance practice video from 2002 floating around YouTube where 5th gen looks visibly anxious and Risa even looks like she’s been crying. Even Ai, in 2018, talked about how the first few years in the group were so bad they often talked about wanting to “run away” from it all.

But Maki stepped in when she could. She wrote them a handwritten letter when they first joined, offering support and telling them they could come to her with anything. She basically became their link to the seniors. They said that anytime Kaori scolded them, Maki would comfort them afterward. There’s also purikura of Maki, Ai, and Asami hanging out privately around that time, which shows how close they were. So when Maki announced her graduation, 5th gen took it hard, they saw her as their protector.

Kaori eventually softened, especially by 2004. And during her graduation concert the following year, you could tell from the messages from 5th and 6th gen members that the atmosphere had completely changed by then.

So overall, the actual Golden Era, around “LOVE Machine” to “The Peace!” wasn’t strict at all. The periods before and after had way more tension and rigid hierarchy. But during that era, the group was at its most relaxed in terms of hierarchy and rules.

[mimimindy]

A lot of people say the Golden Era of Morning Musume was strict or had bad group dynamics but that usually means they didn’t really know the group back then. The strictness people noticed was more of a 1st and 2nd gen thing, and a lot of it was enforced by their manager to stir up drama for TV. By the time “Furusato” came out, the group had already been through so much, like nearly being disbanded, that it actually brought them closer together.

Sayaka, who used to be so shy she barely spoke, started opening up more, especially around Yuko. She even started speaking up on TV, which was a big deal considering how much seniority mattered. Mari got so comfortable that she'd call out Kaori backstage when she felt something the latter did annoyed her which is something she never would’ve done before “Furusato”. They’d even argue, which just which just showed how much more open communication between them had become.

When Maki joined, the group initially gave her the cold shoulder. Not because they hated her, but because her whole presence, the dyed hair, pierced ears, heavier makeup, went against the image their manager had been enforcing on them. There was definitely some jealousy too. But when “LOVE Machine” blew up, the success bonded them in a real way. They became so close that junior members would straight-up call out their seniors if they had an issue. That kind of honesty might seem negative, but it was healthier than bottling things up and feeling oppressed because you can’t call out bad behavior just because they’re more senior.

Maki ended up getting closest to Sayaka and Aya, and during the “LOVE Machine” era, they’d hang out in private. She later said the only member who initially scared her was Kei but it

was just because of Kei’s rough perm, which had a kind of yanki image back then. They ended up bonding through Pucchimoni, and Maki started calling her Kei-chan.

There was tension between Maki and Nacchi too, but both of them have said they got along even before 4th gen joined. The media played a big role in exaggerating that feud and would publish articles putting one or the other down. Magazines even published leaked purikura of the two hanging out in early 2001, and they used to have sleepovers.

When 4th gen came in, things relaxed even more. The manager had moved on to other ventures, so he wasn’t as hands-on to enforce in group drama. Tsuji and Kago were totally unfiltered, they didn’t use honorifics with seniors, which is the opposite of how the group works today. They pulled pranks on Mari backstage, made joke songs about Yuko, and even teased Kaori using jokes they’d seen on Utaban before their debut.

Things only got strict again when 5th gen joined and Kaori was leader. For some reason, no one really knows why, Kaori was pretty cold to them. Maybe she didn’t think they were suitable additions, or maybe she was influenced by public opinion of hatred against them. There’s even a radio show with just her and 5th gen when they first joined where she doesn’t use their names when speaking them, just calls them “newbies” and seemed disinterested. That kind of distance made it hard for them to speak up or feel like they belonged. There’s a dance practice video from 2002 floating around YouTube where 5th gen looks visibly anxious and Risa even looks like she’s been crying. Even Ai, in 2018, talked about how the first few years in the group were so bad they often talked about wanting to “run away” from it all.

But Maki stepped in when she could. She wrote them a handwritten letter when they first joined, offering support and telling them they could come to her with anything. She basically became their link to the seniors. They said that anytime Kaori scolded them, Maki would comfort them afterward. There’s also purikura of Maki, Ai, and Asami hanging out privately around that time, which shows how close they were. So when Maki announced her graduation, 5th gen took it hard, they saw her as their protector.

Kaori eventually softened, especially by 2004. And during her graduation concert the following year, you could tell from the messages from 5th and 6th gen members that the atmosphere had completely changed by then.

So overall, the actual Golden Era, around “LOVE Machine” to “The Peace!” wasn’t strict at all. The periods before and after had way more tension and rigid hierarchy. But during that era, the group was at its most relaxed in terms of hierarchy and rules.

[mimimindy]

Maybe I'm just stating the obvious, but Sakura's eventual graduation will be a HUGE blow to MM. Not to downplay the other girls' singing abilities because they're all decent, but no one is a SINGER like Sakura, and UF hasn't invested in a new girl who can really sing in ages. The group will be fine and carry on as always, but the vocal level of their performances will be drastically lower, and it's such a shame that management had years to prepare for this and didn't, by continuously picking average singers every generation.

[mimimindy]

I really hate the idea that Morning Musume wota have been lolis because historically, it's not true. In fact, for most auditions, they initially lash out against very young and childish looking finalists. There's 2ch logs that exist from every audition and if you follow along with them you realize that wota didn't like very young members. When the 4th gen audition was airing, Tsuji and Kago being in the audition was called a joke by 2ch. A lot said they were disgusted and didn't want to see elementary school students singing songs like DHOM and saying the "nice body body" lyric in Love Machine. The fan favorites for that audition were Yossy and Fujimoto and they actually had a meltdown when Fujimoto was dropped early on.

When TsujiKago passed, 2ch blew up. A lot said they would stop supporting the group because of Tsuji and Kago. Happy Summer Wedding's sales sold 200,000 less copies than KoiDan in its first week and didn't reach a million copies. I WISH had backlash because people were uncomfortable with Kago being the second lead and uncomfortable with a childish song and its overall sales were half of KoiDan. People just couldn't accept TsujiKago, though they brought in a legion of lolicon fans and very young fans. The Morning Musume 5ch board famously called TsujiKago fans derogatory names during 2000-2001 and accused them of being lolicons.

For the 5th gen audition, they were outraged that more 12-13 year olds were joining. A lot even said they would stop being fans. A month after 5th gen joined, a popular comedy skit show called Cocorico Miracle Type depicted Morning Musume fans as old men who were creepy lolicons even though the average Morning Musume fan at the time was college aged and Nacchi and Gomaki were the most popular members. It destroyed the reputation of Morning Musume wota with the general public and alienated casual fans from supporting the group which is why sales started to decline further. 2ch was understandably upset, but unfortunately lashed out against 5th gen instead of UFA.

For the 6th gen audition, TV Tokyo put up a website that individually posted screenshots from the audition videos of all the girls that made it to the second round and allowed fans to vote. The top four girls were all 15-17 years old once their identities were found out. The #4 girl was a gyaru with dyed hair and jewelery. The #1 girl with 20,000+ votes was actually older than Gomaki with piercings and dyed hair and 2ch became so obsessed with that one screenshot of her, the girl had her own thread on 5ch that had 20 continuations (so 20,000 support comments!) just off of a single screenshot. When Kamei, Michishige and Tanaka were revealed as finalists, 2ch had a meltdown and said they were disgusted that three "lolis" were chosen and wrote hate mail to TV Tokyo for "tricking the fans" and ignoring the results of the fan ranking. They also made death threats and doxxed the staff working on the audition show. Months later they expressed disgust on 5ch with the way UFA marketed 6th gen before their on-stage debut with them having to practice in gym bloomers and called out the company for trying to attract more lolicon fans instead of the general public.

For the first 7th gen audition, an 18 year old girl named Muraoka Eri became the fan favorite very early into the audition because people thought she looked like Ishihara Satomi and could attract casual fans. She was dropped after the second round despite Tsunku saying she had a nice voice and that he wanted to debut her right away. 2ch lost all interest in the audition after that and expressed extreme hatred for the finalists in all the audition threads and had "festival" threads when no winners were announced.

For the second 7th gen audition, 2ch was upset that Koharu was chosen. A lot of comments said that a 12 year old country bumpkin was the type of girl old men would like, not what would attract new fans to a declining Musume. Online news articles quoted Tsunku as saying Koharu was the next Goto Maki and wota were upset, saying they thought if Tsunku was looking for an ace they expected a "cool" girl who had a bit of a yanki or gyaru flair or like a model, not a child. A lot of wota were hoping for a girl who had charisma like Seventeen models Suzuki Emi and Eikura Nana who were gaining mainstream success at the time of the audition for having crossover appeal. So Koharu was initially a disappointment and received a lot of flak upon joining but she did bring in new fans that liked her look.

For the 8th gen audition, Masuda was the overwhelming favorite on 2ch because of her talent but a lot were worried that if she passed she wouldn't be accepted by the mainstream because she looked childish and was very tiny. Her antis called her fans lolicons and said she would bolster the stigma that the group's wota are lolicons. Kikkawa also had a lot of fans who thought her mature look matched what the general public liked because actresses like Aragaki Yui, Ayase Haruka and Nagasawa Masami who had 'soft, calming' looks were becoming famous at the time and popular with both men and women.

By the 9th gen audition, Riho was popular with fans who wanted to see real talent join but she and the rest of 9th gen unfortunately brought back all the lolicon fans that had abandoned the group during the Platinum Era. A lot of the lolicon humor that existed on 2ch when Tsuji and Kago were active in the group returned onto 2ch. UFA completely catered to that demographic by giving 12 year old Riho a photobook that is now considered by wota to be child exploitation.

So loooong story short, historically, Morning Musume aren't generally lolicons and actually do not prefer young members. It's an old and tired stigma. They usually prefer girls that they think the general public would like or at least attract more female fans so audition pools can be bigger, considering Gomaki uniting the group had a bigger and diverse pool of girls applying and all saying they wanted to be like her.

[mimimindy]

Whenever I want to make myself mad I just remember how many solo parts each member got during the KOKORO&KARADA fall tour

Mizuki 98

Sakura 81

Maa 56

Ayumi 54

Chel 24

Chii 19

Maria, Akane 18

Erina 16

Yokoyan 13

Kaede 9

Homare, Mei 3

Rio 2

Things are a lot better now and the gaps aren’t as big (How the heck did MAA with her crazy popularity get 42 less parts than Mizuki???? 😕), but with Rio out of the way I imagine her lines will be spread out evenly

[mimimindy]

Hot hot take but I always see Japanese wota talk about how legendary 9-10th gen is and that’s why they get a pass for overstaying in the group because they’re the “last successful members of MM.” But if you somehow replaced all of 9-10th gen ‘14 members EXCEPT obviously Riho and Sakura with 15-17th gen members, you probably wouldn’t see much difference in their success. Being aggressively pushed in the media + Sayu being there as the last member the general public recognized + Riho being a captivating ace + the amazing level of music Tsunku was pumping out back to back did most of the legwork. It’s not like the Golden Era where each member had so much individuality and a unique look that people remembered their names. The rest of 9-10th gen was just lucky to be there for 2012-2014, I wouldn’t call them legendary or more special over any of the successive gens just because they were fortunate enough to be a part of that.

[mimimindy]

[mimimindy]

My eternal regret...

Even though I kinda saw this coming, I think part of me was still hoping for KF to pull off C-ute and rise from their losses to fame. Set off with your head held high and fists pumped up to the air!

[mimimindy]

Kobushi Factory really reminds me of Johnny’s group Kanjani8 in his old days. Both are weirdly funny and their songs have this traditional/enka vibes.

[mimimindy]

I don’t get the Tsubaki Factory hype. They certainly are visually attractive, but aren’t as talented as Kobushi or BEYOOOONDS. They also just seem like a more polished version of every local idol group.

[mimimindy]

What are the other 6 wonders of Hello! Project?

1. What did Rio do to get kicked.2. Why did Uta leave country girls3. Was that really Miaybi in the photos from her 2008 scandle.4. Why are aika and Riho still part of hello! Project but not taking part of the 20th. 5. Did saki leave because 2ki joined or was 2ki added because she was leaving.6. Will 2ki ever get photobooks7 what happened to the Fiesta Fiesta mv

[mimimindy]

After coming across so many political posts filled with arguements and hatred on IG, I find looking up former H!P members and seeing their posts where they’re living their lives happily to be a cleanser for me.

[mimimindy]

OCHA now reminds me of 2015-2016 ANGERME. A very well oiled machine where everyone is operating at the same level and everyone stands out on and off stage. The problem with generational groups is that when you add newbies the quality of the group goes down if they take too long to catch up with the rest of the group and people complain about the old days. I hope OCHA remains untouched.

[mimimindy]

Hello, everyone! I'm not a frequent poster here, but since this community is so active in tumblr, I wanted to share something special. I'm currently working on an animatic that captures the emotional reunion with Lysandre.

[mimimindy]

auditions and new members used to be an exciting time but now i just don't give a shit. it's always the same. we get new members with no information, a few scraps of footage, and some boring photos of them in those plain white dresses. none of them stand out because they always go for the exact. same. look. they take forever to actually settle into the group and even longer to gain any real popularity because there's no effort to push them. sure, there have been a few decent debuts since 2020, but that's it out of the 20+ members they've pushed out since then. i keep forgetting the new tsubaki girls joined a year ago because it feels like they just got here. back in 2012-2014, the kss pool was full of big personalities and unique characters. people would argue over who deserved to debut, even if someone had just joined and audition announcements would be lively. it was exciting. it had energy. but now? none of the KSS except one or two seem interesting. i thought the beyo + h!p audition might shake things up since the age limit was higher, but nope. nothing changed. i've got a couple oshis left, but when they're gone, i'm probably done with h!p too.

[mimimindy]

May be true. But Momoiro Clover Z is the same and stayed super active, relevant and refreshing for like 10 years after starting from literally 0. Now they continue their carreer in safe mode but are still big and relevant. So the problem is not Biyo's concept itself but how H!P can handle it. Maybe their eyes were bigger than their belly when they debut Biyo...

Beyoooonds fans need to realize the reason they release less music is because they're a gimmick group and the pd will run out of ideas real fast if they did more, they're already strapped for resources as it is. plus beyoooonds has been taking up all the stage plays for the last few years iirc. It would be best if UF could let the group have it's run and disband after 9ish years.

[mimimindy]

I will not say Sakura is the best idol singer in the entertainment world. But no emotion ? Okay, Mizuki was better for emotion, but Sakura's voice is always full of passion !

Sakura's voice wouldn't be considered that good if h!p hadn't abandoned selecting good singers for mm after she joined. Sure she's not terrible, she can hit basically any note they give her, but her high notes sound really whiny and headache inducing. Plus her voice often lacks emotion. When she covers songs performed by other members (even ones who were objectively worse singers) her covers sound like she's phoning it in. There's a reason she's been h!p's flagship utahime for over a decade, and they've never tried to make her have a solo career, not even a small one while she stays in mm. Her voice doesn't impact as hard when it's on its own.