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The story
A thread on 5ch asking whether people like or dislike Hello! Project member Hirayama sparked a lively debate. Some complained that likes on her TikTok have visibly dropped and that her blog and Instagram updates have stalled, while others said they only started paying attention to her once she began growing her hair out — leaving opinions sharply divided. The repeated posting of an official photo from four years ago also led to a minor spat between those who kept sharing it and those who found it annoying.
What people said
Heard her solo numbers (individual event/photo sales) have dropped too
Because she's got the strongest shield
I saw a post saying there weren't many female fans, but were there ever that many to begin with?
If you're out of material, you don't have to force a thread
She's skipping the bus tour without even an apology
That's a lack of professionalism
https://stat.ameba.jp/user_images/20220330/21/angerme-new/d1/20/j/o1080108015095417986.jpg
Sure!
But it's never gonna happen
She's on vacation right now
That's Hirayama
She can't exactly post 'the sun on the beach feels great!' while she's supposed to be laying low
Her recent hairstyle's great, right? I wasn't interested before, but once she started growing her hair out I started paying attention to her
Exactly
She's surprisingly girly too
Probably some guy nobody's heard of
It was Mokomichi (actor Mokomichi Hasegawa)
You keep dragging out that same photo from over 4 years ago — it's exhausting how persistent you are
Why would posting an official photo from 4 years ago be a problem for you?
That's kind of mean
Background and Key Points
Hirayama Ayaka is a member of Angerme, one of the idol groups under Hello! Project, the multi-generational idol umbrella run by Up-Front Works (also home to Morning Musume and several sister units). In Japan’s idol industry, engagement metrics carry outsized weight: blog and Instagram updates on official Hello! Project platforms function as the primary channel between idols and fans between live performances, and solo goods such as individual event tickets and photo sets (“chekis”/solo photo sales) are treated as informal popularity rankings within a group. TikTok, a newer addition to idol promotion, is likewise watched closely by fans as a proxy for an idol’s momentum. Her surname is also the basis of a long-running pun among fans, since “hira” can mean “flat,” making jokes about her height and appearance a recurring fixture of threads about her.
The thread’s real fault line wasn’t about liking or disliking her outright, but about which signal to trust: posters citing falling TikTok likes and stalled blog activity read those numbers as decline, while others said a recent change to longer hair had newly won them over — meaning the same period that looked like a downturn by one metric looked like a comeback by another.
Readers should be careful not to conflate two separate people sharing the surname Hirayama: the idol discussed here is distinct from Hirayama Aya, referenced in the thread as having married actor Mokomichi Hasegawa — a mix-up the posters themselves briefly stumbled into. It’s also worth noting that Japanese idols are frequently expected to go quiet on personal social media during scheduled downtime, so a blog silence during a break isn’t necessarily evidence of disengagement, contrary to how some posters read it.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Hello! Project) thread ‘Do you guys actually like Hirayama?’.
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