Posted 12 June 2019 - 10:56 AM
Today's H!S had another surprise: Juice=Juice will get new members. https://www.youtube....re=youtu.be&t=5
Just like MM they're going to be revealed through a live stream, but earlier, on June 14 already. They will be entirely KSS.
(Also, Tomoko will become the new leader and Sayuki the new subleader.)
- - -
I am so tired with H!P at the moment.
Posted 12 June 2019 - 12:01 PM
Posted 12 June 2019 - 12:03 PM
I will only accept this news if one of the KSS is Riai. I was really hoping Juice=Juice would remain as it was but oh well. I guess they need to give me someone to throw at the bottom of my list and I'm not aloud to have nice things like a stable vocal group.
I'm beginning to think this is what Tsunku didn't like about the "new" H!P system and why he left.
And yet. I'm still surprised the Factory groups haven't been given new members. More specifically, Kobushi. I guess they are going to leave them to be like C-ute and Berryz and just fester till they all decided to disband the groups.
Posted 12 June 2019 - 01:06 PM
Posted 12 June 2019 - 02:06 PM
Kudo Yume would tear apart their status as the group with decent to good singers.
Posted 12 June 2019 - 04:23 PM
I'm not that enthusiastic about this. I just hope that whoever they add are decent (preferably good) singers, but knowing my luck...
Posted 12 June 2019 - 04:35 PM
Kudo Yume would tear apart their status as the group with decent to good singers.
I stand corrected. Kudo Yume is one of the few KSS that are okay-ish. She and Riai.
So I guess I gotta hope it's them 
This year's test, for all that need to watch it again: https://www.youtube....h?v=ExAdSVd-6gs
Posted 12 June 2019 - 04:37 PM
...why???
I probably would have been fine with this had the group done a single as six before adding more but... why do they need to add more?? Unless there's more graduations on the horizon.
I just hope whoever they add has some actual vocal talent. (side note: it's been a KSS debut-fest as of late (ie the last couple of years), which is really weird)
Posted 13 June 2019 - 03:38 AM
Wheee! Let's water down another great H!P group.
Tbh J=J would’ve been perfect if they hadn’t added Manaka and it had just been the other 6.
Yes. They were perfect without Manaka, and H!P doesn't need another group following the MM model.
Posted 14 June 2019 - 12:14 PM
Posted 14 June 2019 - 12:16 PM
It means that the best singers didn't go to MM - again 
Posted 14 June 2019 - 12:23 PM
At least Riai went to Juice=Juice and I'm glad for that. Surprised about Kudo Yume. Juice got the #1 and #2 from the KSS Test. Kudo seems like a good dancer and that seems like what they are starting to push Juice towards with the addition of Manaka. So they can evolve into a vocal and dance group. I'm not opposed to that one bit.
Now that I lost Riai to Juice I guess I wouldn't mind Ruru in Morning Musume. She did pretty well during the test. I liked her performance of Shiny G.
Posted 14 June 2019 - 01:31 PM
I am psychic.My prediction is Matsunaga Riai and Kudo Yume.
Posted 14 June 2019 - 03:49 PM
Thank goodness they added the better singers to Juice=Juice, I was worried they would add someone awful. This is good, and I find it kind of funny how the better singers went somewhere else than MM, again.
Posted 14 June 2019 - 04:15 PM
Okay this I'm fine with. This is good. JJ continues to get good vocalists and this is perfectly fine because it's further cementing them as the best group for that.
Rip MM in terms of getting someone who's actually good at singing tho...
Posted 14 June 2019 - 09:11 PM
I guess if adding new members to J=J was inevitable, then I"m glad they at least added two apparently good singers.
Posted 15 June 2019 - 02:25 AM
Posted 15 June 2019 - 07:51 AM
I guess they've basically resigned MM to being the group that only gets bad singers and mediocre additions lmao. Don't get me wrong - I'm glad they didn't water down J=J even more by adding bad vocalists, but I'd rather J=J stay as they are and the talent go to MM, they need it far more.
Posted 15 June 2019 - 10:33 PM
Yeah, my interest in MM is pretty much all nostalgia at this point. They're the worst of the established H!P groups, and by a fair margin.
Posted 16 June 2019 - 12:55 AM
Posted 16 June 2019 - 10:35 AM
Posted 17 June 2019 - 08:36 AM
I don't know what you guys are talking about. Morning Musume is as good as they've ever been. I enjoy everything I see from them and watch their recent concerts over and over.
What's important is not how skilled they are as individual singers and dancers but how they perform as a group, how in tune with each other they are, the way they sing together and the way they move together. And they've reached a level of harmony I don't think I've ever seen in the group before. You've got a solid core of the five senior members: Mizuki, Erina, Ayumi, Masaki and Sakura. And then you've got top supporting performers in Maria, Kaga, and Chisaki. And the other three more than do their part. Plus, you've got a nice range of personalities, maybe not quite as disparate as when 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th and 6th Gen all had members in the group, but still a pleasant mix. I enjoy every second from every one of the current members. I experience extraordinary joy watching them all perform--on a par with when I first began discovering the group.
Still my favorite group.
Posted 17 June 2019 - 04:46 PM
Morning Musume will forever be my favorite group and as much as I adore other groups at the moment more than Morning Musume (Juice=Juice/Tsubaki Factory), the group will always remain my #1. But I can see where they are lacking and it's the fact that they aren't coloring outside the lines anymore. They are sticking with one genre and they need to experiment with some new and different styles. Maybe a ballad or a rock song to play to different strengths. They've been on this EDM track for SO LONG that it's starting to all blend in together and become very one note. Part of their problem is that, unlike in the past, you all have very similar groups within the same company fighting for the same thing. Morning Musume was always about the graduations and auditions. Now you have all the groups doing the same thing. It's hard to stand out with that and they get stuck doing that one nitch thing that the other groups aren't doing.
UF is planning for impending graduations. Ikuta's clearly checked out. Masaki's pretty much sounds like a chain smoker after every concert. Sakura and Mizuki can't last forever no matter how much I'd LIKE them too. And Ayumi will never figure out how to sing no matter how much I wish she could.12th Gen is starting to age out. 13th gen are coming into their own and Chisaki is... Chisaki.
They can't have a major disconnect like they did in 2011 where you have the new members learning in the background while the older members do most of the grunt work.
I feel that's what they are doing with Juice=Juice. Sayuki, Karin and Tomoko can't hold out forever. Someones eventually going to need to be able to sing their songs just as well as they can but aside from Ruru I don't see anyone capable of even touching Sayuki.
Posted 17 June 2019 - 06:37 PM
Posted 17 June 2019 - 07:01 PM
Ikuta really mentioned staff talking to her about graduation (at one of the release events for the new single). I really hope we won't go without a graduation this year. They could easily lose someone.
I'd prefer Ikuta since she never had an important role in the group - and she also had somewhat of a glow up with the last single, like Haruna did shortly before she announced her graduation.
Juice's first generation is definitely on borrowed time. After Dawa's grad tomorrow Tomoko will be H!P's oldest member, being born in 1995 - next is Mizuki from 1996 and then a bunch of 97ers (Ayumi, Sayuki, Kana, Takechan, Manaka, Yamakki). Even Karin and Aarii were born only 1 year after Sayuki (1998). 20 is not an old age, not even for an idol, but considering they've been going for 6 years it wouldn't be surprising if they slowly grew out of the group (especially with Karin's and even Tomoko's health conditions).
I do hope that Riai and Yume grow to be great singers. To be fair I didn't know Sayuki would turn out to be such a songstress when she debuted, so I should probably give them the benefit of the doubt.
Posted 18 June 2019 - 12:58 AM
Music is subjective, and I get that there are people who love the current group and/or the Platinum Era, but I ain't one of them, lol. I went back and listened to some Platinum songs today, and I think I like them more musically for the most part, even though they're not my favorite. WRT the "individual talent is less important than overall group performance" stance, I agree so long as one very important consideration is met: the overall talent floor must acceptably high, and I don't think MM's talent floor meets that criteria. I've made this point a lot when talking with friends about rock bands, that I don't mind a bit of raw slop in my rock and roll, and if that slop is born of emotion and energy, all the better, but there is a level of talent that I expect from someone who earns a living on stage. It's not a staggeringly high bar to clear, either. I've also stated a hundred times on this forum that I don't mind idol groups employing a few tin-ears so long as they bring an engaging personality to the table. But the ratio of competent singers to tin-ears should never weigh in favor of the tin-ears as, IMO, MM's currently does.
This group needs an injection of talent in the worst way, because by my math this eleven-member group claims only four competent singers (Oda, Maa, Fuku and -- just barely -- Miki). Of those four, Fuku will turn 23 in a few months, and the others are either 20 or will be this year. I don't see Oda or Miki going anywhere anytime soon, and Maa -- who knows? She could decide to leave tomorrow, or she could stay until she's 30. My sense is that she loves Morning Musume like Sayu loved Morning Musume, and that she'll have to be told to graduate. Moving Erina and Ayumi out in favor of two or three actually talented girls would at least even good/bad singer ratio, which would go a long way to improving their performances. I don't even care if they can dance, because tbh, their dancing has slipped to the point where the only things I notice anymore are the cringe moments.
Posted 03 October 2019 - 07:25 PM
Since ANGERME has been building up a reputation of only adding members when others are going to graduate...
... I wonder if it's going to be the same for Juice=Juice. I know it doesn't add up that well considering that long-lasting 5nin Juice is now an 8nin group, but adding two new members made me think that we'll have to say goodbye to a Juice girl next year (again).
Most likely is Tomoko, because she'll turn 25 next year. But Karin's solo career might be a hint, too.
