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The story
On the Hello! Project board, a thread looking back at Juice=Juice’s lineup changes over the years drew a lot of attention. Veteran fans laid out a timeline of how, every time an original member — Kanazawa, Takagi, Miyamoto, Uemura, Inaba, and others — left the group, a member drawn from the trainee ranks — Arisawa, Irie, Ebata, Ishiyama, Endo, and others — stepped in to replace them.
One point of debate was whether Kawashima was really an “instant asset” from the moment she joined. Some argued she was, pointing to her landing variety-show (BP) bookings as proof, while others countered that her popularity was underwhelming at first. Fans also traded the term “canon” (正史) — fandom slang for the accepted timeline — to describe how the group pulled through a slump of cover-song releases and scandal-driven departures before bouncing back thanks to a hit signature song.
What people said
at most that's Irie and Endo.
Kanazawa, Takagi, Miyamoto, Uemura, Inaba, Danbara, Inoue, Matsunaga, Kudo
that's the lineup era they called the "Avengers"
From there
Kanazawa, Takagi, Miyamoto, Uemura, and Inaba got replaced
by Arisawa, Irie, Ebata, Ishiyama, and Endo, and that was that
and then the songs brought them back to life
that's the canon, no doubt about it
way too many newbie fans don't get this part
How come Kawashima and Hayashi aren't in there?
Cover-song hell, a scandal, popular members leaving one after another, a flood of new trainee-slot members coming in —
they overcame all of that to become today's Juice=Juice.
They're not just a one-hit wonder off "Moreme" (fan nickname for their signature song).
Takagi's kind too, but she doesn't have that same big-hearted generosity Uemura has.
This thread was pushing misinformation from the start.
Wasn't the drama theme song that Yuuri track?
Not the drama theme song.
Isn't it the song "Diamond"?
feels like some "here's the ultimate Juice lineup I dreamed up" fan-fiction thing.
Kinda lame.
She neatly dodged landmine BP gigs like "Danson" and the like.
Expectations for her were even higher than for Ebata back when Ebata was still a trainee.
Meanwhile the older Arisawa and Ishiyama were the type who could've just faded out of the trainee program and everyone would've gone "oh… okay" if their training had simply ended.
https://kizuna.5ch.io/test/read.cgi/morningcoffee/1788474069/
Even Sayashi, who people say was heavily pushed, wasn't the center on every song either.
Ebata was already the most popular in her 30th-gen trainee class, beating out Hirayama, Kitahara, and everyone else.
Wait, is Ebata really the most popular member right now?
Then they drew Ishiyama and Endo and it was like "what do we even do with this"
Just when they thought they'd landed Kawashima, she came down with a bad case of "I wish I'd joined Morning Musume instead," and the whole group's mood tanked
2021 to 2023 was the dark ages.
So you're saying they weathered a stormy era?
That's pretty cool.
Now I've completely flipped to the "glad she ended up in Juice=Juice" camp.
Kawashima be like, "Whew, that was close!"
The "Nouvelle Vague" tour was amazing.
That's when I became convinced this lineup of Juice could really make it.
Sunflower
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
Since debuting in 2015, Juice=Juice has seen a string of original members leave, with new members from the Hello Pro Kenshuusei (trainee) program stepping in each time. The terms “canon” and “Avengers” used in the thread are fan slang referring to the generational shift from the original lineup — Kanazawa, Takagi, Miyamoto, and others — to Arisawa, Irie, Ebata, Ishiyama, and Endo. Opinions were split on whether Kawashima was truly an “instant asset,” and posts touching on details beyond official announcements — like the circumstances behind Takagi’s departure or the internal situation when Yanagawa joined — often contained unverifiable speculation, so those comments were left out of this article. “Moreme,” cited as the trigger for the group’s comeback in popularity, is fan shorthand for one of the group’s signature songs — and this kind of insider abbreviation flying around is typical of veteran Hello! Project threads.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Hello! Project board) thread “Kawashima and Hayashi were instant assets, and then they brought in five trainee-slot members in a row — “Arisawa, Irie, Ebata” and “Ishiyama, Endo” — yet Juice=Juice raised every single one of them.”
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