UFP/OG Spam Thread :: All things non-Hello!Project Related!

[JPope]

Mr. and Mrs. NoNo made a dance video.

[Farrah]

[quote="JPope"]
Mr. and Mrs. NoNo made a dance video.
[/quote]
 
That's super cute.  I honestly never expected them to last given the circumstances of their marriage but it seems like they actually suit each other very well.

[yuzuriha]

OMG that's so cute I am actually crying

[TicTacAnyone]

Since no one mentioned it.... Ogata Haruna was getting railed in the comments of a recent video of hers.
 
Basically for speaking about the show Monster Idol, answering what kind of idol group she would produce, and answering what her ideal idol type is. It got as bad as people calling her the shame of H!P in the comments, and that she obviously "wasn't selected as member by Tsunku." Also comments regarding her ability to speak about idols since she wasn't skilled/didn't work hard, about her needing to watch what she says out of respect for current/previous other MM members, and fans saying she just wants to be in the spotlight.
 
 
IMO... I didn't hear her say anything that outrageous. She wasn't spilling H!P secrets or anything crazy like that. But I was half listening, half reading comments so.... But yeah this video was horribly received, which is surprising since most of her other videos have positive comments/positive like-to-dislike ratio. Also interesting since you have someone like Iikubo who is literally being an idol again, just virtually lmao

[WonderBuono]

Wait so what did she say that made people upset? And what is Monster Idol? Sorry my Japanese sucks and this video is too long lol.

And y’all know I wanted her gone from MM but that doesn’t mean she can’t have an opinion on idols? If that’s the whole problem here?

[arcobaleno]

[quote="WonderBuono"]
And y’all know I wanted her gone from MM but that doesn’t mean she can’t have an opinion on idols? If that’s the whole problem here?
[/quote]
 
From what I can understand, that's basically their problem - they find it extremely abhorrent that she, in the video title, called herself an "ex-idol" when, in their eyes, she was just basically a very half-assed, non-caring idol who didn't put hardly any effort into improving, her studies (a lot of them talk about how she was supposed to be going to college and is instead posting on YT, making her look like she can't stick with anything), etc., etc.
 
To them, she has absolutely no right to talk about idols because she was a failure as one, didn't care, is bringing shame to H!P and the OG/current Musume members, etc. Monster Idol (after some Googling) is some kind of "idol producing" show a la Produce 101, it seems. I didn't really listen to the video, but as TicTac said, they took offense to her even thinking she could produce a group due to the oft-mentioned "half-assedness" she has shown them so far. They think she's arrogant to think so, etc.
 
They kept mentioning "idols who drink sake" or something. Because I didn't listen to the video, I'm not sure if they're talking about her or what the type of idols she said she'd like to see. I'm thinking it's her preference because they said it came off bad to them a lot.
 
All in all, they basically think she has zero room to talk about idols, because she didn't care about being one (not because she graduated, but because of the apparent lack of effort she displayed), and said she was leaving the entertainment world, and now is back on YT posting videos about this and that and now suddenly calls herself an "ex-idol" and is talking about idols like she truly cares and wasn't using MM to get famous, etc. A lot of them are now thinking she never liked MM and only used it to try and become famous etc etc.
 
A lot of very strong opinions they have on her video.
 
Me, it's a free world so she's free to speak her mind, and while I can understand why they're angry from an observational point of them, I think they're being melodramatic about it. I get that she comes off as a huge hypocrite but there are honestly far more pressing problems in the world than a kind of bratty idol-who-quit-and-didn't-care-about-being-an-idol-now-calling-herself-an-ex-idol-and-offering-opinions.

[TicTacAnyone]

[quote="arcobaleno"]
 
They kept mentioning "idols who drink sake" or something. Because I didn't listen to the video, I'm not sure if they're talking about her or what the type of idols she said she'd like to see. I'm thinking it's her preference because they said it came off bad to them a lot.
 
[/quote]
 
I can answer the sake thing;
 
So when she described her what type of idol group she'd produce here's what she said (shortened!):
-Larger group, about 12 girls
-Girls from middle school up into high schoolers, as these types of girls work hard and give it their all
-Theme of the group, the girls would each be their own alcoholic drink... with cuter alcohol drinks being their names. Then the guests would be the drinking snacks, because if you have sake you have to have the snacks, they complete each other.
-She made some comments about their events taking place at "all you can drink" venues. And she worried if this would make people fat since you gain weight drinking alcohol often, but she hasn't experienced that herself yet.
-Instead of handshake events, they'd do cheers
 
 
I was pretty stunned she wanted to make a bunch of middle schoolers and high schoolers represent alcohol and go perform for a bunch of drunken men... lol.... that was my most shocking part.

[JPope]

[quote="TicTacAnyone"]
I was pretty stunned she wanted to make a bunch of middle schoolers and high schoolers represent alcohol and go perform for a bunch of drunken men... lol.... that was my most shocking part.
 
[/quote]
 
Wew lad... 

[arcobaleno]

Wow, yeah, that is... not good, lol. I can completely understand not liking that concept.

[honey]

uh, yikes, that definitely gave some context to the outrage lol.
 
as a non-Japanese speaker, it's not often I get insight into how the general j-netz feel about an idol that hasn't had like a scandal necessarily, so it was like naively surprising for me to hear such strong opinions on her tenure within the group. sometimes I question if I'm overly critical of some of the girls within H!P so it's kind of a weird reassurance to see a lot of remarks with similar sentiments to my own regarding her being an underperformer lol.

[WonderBuono]

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="JPope" data-cid="219449" data-time="1577735078"><blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="TicTacAnyone" data-cid="219448" data-time="1577733088">
I was pretty stunned she wanted to make a bunch of middle schoolers and high schoolers represent alcohol and go perform for a bunch of drunken men... lol.... that was my most shocking part.
</blockquote>Wew lad... </blockquote>Ok yeah I’ll agree with the netizens there, that’s pretty weird.


Thanks for the summary TicTac and arco :)

[JPope]

[quote="DonJuan"]
https://twitter.com/JPopProjectNews/status/1147774256945778689?fbclid=IwAR3Ibcfk2h-MuyC5VKT4B4Y523KAmf1XAa9qmpNdQekE65V3G3-DPYkDmEM
 
Okai Chisato becomes the next Yaguchi Mari and dates a married man.
Rumor has it that this is the reason behind her sudden hiatus.
[/quote]
 
Guess who's getting married? Link (in Japanese). 

[DonJuan]

Fukuda Kanon has left Up-Front Promotion.

[Anderei]

Probably gonna go somewhere else where she can do more writing.

[JPope]

Not too surprising. UF is probably higher up the ladder than she's ready for right now. A smaller company that will allow her to write more, or even going indie for a while, will probably offer the best opportunity for her to grow as a song writer.

[Anderei]

Apparently there’s been some agency she’s been talking about wanting to join and the head retweeted her announcement. She might end up there.

[TicTacAnyone]

Well I mean from her Twitter it seems she had some (minor) differing opinions to management, lol. I'm not surprised. But it seemed like she got quite a bit of work over the past 4 years. She's credited with lyrics for 13 H!P songs from 2016 onwards, with a majority of them coming from this (2019) year, mostly for Angerme songs. She may have decided she doesn't want to write for Angerme since Ayacho is gone, but I think more likely she was knocking heads with management lol.

[Pi Mako]

Ishikawa Rika gave birth to a second baby boy recently https://www.tokyohive.com/article/2020/01/ishikawa-rika-announces-the-birth-of-her-second-child

[TicTacAnyone]

Speaking of babies.... maybe I was just MIA or off in la-la land.... But I had no idea Ogawa Rena had a baby back in June. And the fact that Risako's baby is about to turn 2 in a few months is mind-boggling.

[Anderei]

I’m pretty sure Rena’s pregnancy got mentioned here. I think she married the guy.

[sayu1991]

Fujimoto Miki is about to pop with a little girl too. I follow her on Instagram.

[TicTacAnyone]

[quote="Sayu"]
Fujimoto Miki is about to pop with a little girl too. I follow her on Instagram.
[/quote]
 
Time to form a new OG sub-unit, Morning Mama.

[TicTacAnyone]

Double posting because I watched Mou Iccho's video today.... They post a bunch of idol stuff. Anyway, the host has worked with all of the current H!P groups, but years ago had Kobushi Factory on and he really liked Taguchi and the TaguRena duo. He ended up having them come on the show separately. Even after Taguchi left he continued to support Kobushi despite being a Tagu-wota. He's been to a ton of Kobushi concerts.
 
Well he revealed (on 1/10/2020) a letter he had gotten from Taguchi back in the spring of 2018, basically thanking him for always supporting Kobushi and herself. The letter had a lot of apologies for the trouble she caused by leaving the group, but it had a few other interesting things in it... Taguchi said she supported Kobushi from the shadows, and when she watched videos of Kobushi for the two months after leaving she wondered to herself why she did what she did and that she's not in the group anymore. But goes on to say that she left that feeling in the past, and now carries the time she spent as an idol as something that makes her life different than others. She liked Ashita Tenki ni Naare, and said it gives her motivation. She said the current Kobushi (early 2018) was way cooler than the Kobushi with her in it. She felt bad that she was a member that was a burden while in the group (in singing and dancing) and that she then also caused trouble by quitting. 

[JPope]

I'm glad that Taguchi didn't carry any spite with her after leaving. She was always my favorite when she was there, because even if she was one of the weaker singers and dancers, she wasn't so bad that she was a nuisance, and she was 50% of the group's personality all by herself. I wonder how things would've turned out had she just knuckled-down and stayed with the group?

[TicTacAnyone]

[quote="JPope"]
I'm glad that Taguchi didn't carry any spite with her after leaving. She was always my favorite when she was there, because even if she was one of the weaker singers and dancers, she wasn't so bad that she was a nuisance, and she was 50% of the group's personality all by herself. I wonder how things would've turned out had she just knuckled-down and stayed with the group?
[/quote]
 
Yeah I was really happy to hear that, too. I know that she was inseparable from Rena, so I was never surprised she left after Rena did. But I think she was just an angsty teenager, too. It's nice to see she can look back (even just a few months after leaving) and realize her errors and that it caused troubles for others. 
 
Idols should be able to leave when they want.... And in that sense I'm glad Taguchi left when she did. But it is sad what happened to Kobushi afterwards. I had to go back and look at the thread about Kobushi-geddon to refresh myself on what all happened..... and woooo I had forgotten just how much of a shit show the WHOLE situation was at that time.

[DonJuan]

Lately I've been into older H!P performances and found a bunch of Matsuura Aya performing her hits on TV. The fact that the whole studio was cheering her on, doing hand movements... but also Ayaya's near-perfect singing, her charisma and her idolish looks - will there ever be another idol in H!P like her?
 
I also completely forgot that so many of her songs, especially her hit songs, were indeed written by Tsunku. 2001 to 2003 really were magical years for H!P.

[Anderei]

Nah, there won’t be. They got crazy lucky with her. And I know she had health problems, but it’s wild how young she still was when her career began its downward trajectory.

[honey]

Is Airi Suzuki the "most successful" post-graduation soloist? I know some like Moto and Tsuji and Yaguchi have maintained some semblance of relevancy after graduation in entertainment, but I can't recall anyone else maintaining a music career as well as she has so far

[Anderei]

I feel like it’s hard to say when it hasn’t been that long and it’s likely she’ll be in a very different place in a few years. If you determine success by sales, then you can already say now that she isn’t.

[JPope]

[quote="DonJuan"]
Lately I've been into older H!P performances and found a bunch of Matsuura Aya performing her hits on TV. The fact that the whole studio was cheering her on, doing hand movements... but also Ayaya's near-perfect singing, her charisma and her idolish looks - will there ever be another idol in H!P like her?
 
I also completely forgot that so many of her songs, especially her hit songs, were indeed written by Tsunku. 2001 to 2003 really were magical years for H!P.
[/quote]
 
Tsunku was in a zone from 1999 through 2004 that is almost impossible to comprehend. Without looking, I bet that if had a list of every song of his that was released over those six years, under 30% of them would be songs I don't like, and of the remaining 70%+, probably a full two dozen I'd rate as H!P classics. 
 
[quote="honey"]
Is Airi Suzuki the "most successful" post-graduation soloist? I know some like Moto and Tsuji and Yaguchi have maintained some semblance of relevancy after graduation in entertainment, but I can't recall anyone else maintaining a music career as well as she has so far
[/quote]
 
Nah, Airi has a long way to go to catch Gomaki. She released 13 post-grad solo singles and three albums over four-and-a-half years with H!P alone. Yeah, her Avex run was a disaster, but it existed, lol. 
 
"Escape" sold pretty well for a former H!P idol, and I'm really interested to see how Airi's next single performs. Her second album flopped compared to her debut, though. (I should bother myself to listen to it at some point, lol)