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The story
The Hello! Project board on 5ch lit up in response to a prompt: “Pick the 10 members who played the most important role in Hello! Project’s history.” Nearly everyone agreed on the founding-era members — Yuko Nakazawa, Natsumi Abe, Maki Goto — as automatic locks, but the fiercest fight was over one of the remaining slots: Ai Takahashi. Voices calling her an unremovable pick (“if she’s not on the list, the whole thing’s pointless”) clashed head-on with those who dismissed her contribution (“she didn’t do anything”). Support also ran strong for Ruru Danbara as “the symbol of Hello! Project’s revival,” laying bare just how much selection criteria differ across generations of fans.
What people said
She'll go down in history as the symbol of Hello! Project's revival
Yuko Nakazawa
Natsumi Abe
Maki Goto
Mari Yaguchi
Nozomi Tsuji
Ai Kago
and 4 more
Ai Takahashi
Michishige
Sayashi
Miyamoto
Sato
Natsumi Abe
Maki Goto
Aya Matsuura
Sayumi Michishige
Momoko Tsugunaga
Airi Suzuki
Masaki Sato
Karin Miyamoto
Daniel
by whatever standard gets Michishige on the list, Takahashi's off it, and vice versa
Otherwise I'm not accepting it
Nakazawa
Abe
Matsuura
Takahashi
Michishige
Miyamoto
Sato
And Kawashima might grow into that kind of figure too
Natsumi Abe
Maki Goto
These are locks
Ai Takahashi
Ai Takahashi
Ai Takahashi
Ai Takahashi
Ai Takahashi
Ai Takahashi
Ai Takahashi
Ai Takahashi
Ai Takahashi
Five more to go
Maki Goto, Tsuji, Kago ← they started a revolution
For the last two — is there really anyone else on that level?
Nobody's gonna accept it
So — Ai Takahashi
This
Without Ai Takahashi it's meaningless — invalid
Sayaka Ichii
Miki Nonaka
Koharu, Rikako, Miyamoto too, and the Kawabe girl too
Conclusion
At least for 2010s Morning Musume, she was a key figure
Aya Matsuura
Airi Suzuki
Ruru Danbara
Background and key points of this discussion
Since Morning Musume’s formation in 1997, Hello! Project has kept reshaping itself through new members, graduations, scandals, and slumps. The thread was nearly unanimous in treating early members like Yuko Nakazawa, Natsumi Abe, and Maki Goto as the group’s “foundation.” Where opinions split was over how to treat Ai Takahashi: some backed her as “the root of Hello! Project’s current direction,” while others dismissed her as having “done nothing” — a divide that came down less to who has the most visible track record and more to how you weigh someone’s role in holding the organization together. The strong support for Ruru Danbara reflects a recent reappraisal following the group’s slump years. Which faces make the cut shifts depending on whether “importance” is measured by track record, symbolic weight, or longevity — a familiar pattern in this kind of member-ranking debate.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Hello! Project board) thread “If you were told to pick the 10 members who played an important role in Hello! Project’s history.”
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