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The story
A thread went up on 5ch’s “Hello! Project” board about a Yahoo! News article reporting the graduation of Angerme member Suzu Hashisako. It started because the article’s Yahoo comments section filled up with a flood of “Who?” posts, which thread members pointed out is a “standard reaction” seen not just for Hello! Project news but also for Hinatazaka46 and Sakurazaka46 stories. Meanwhile, other replies dug into the effort and psychology behind bothering to type “Who?” on an article about an idol you’ve never heard of, and opinions split over whether it’s just mockery or a reflection of the idol’s lack of name recognition.
What people said
This is the Promotion Edit for "Kuyashii wa," from Angerme's new single "Kuyashii wa / Piece of Peace ~Shiawase no Puzzle~," released October 19, 2022.
Lyrics & Composition: Takui Nakajima
Same thing's going to happen with Morning Musume once Oda graduates, you know.
"Wait, is Morning Musume even still a thing?"
Might call it a difference of degree, but it's an extreme difference in degree.
Forcing an unknown onto the top page is exactly why you get a flood of "Who?"
And since nobody even remembers it afterward, it doesn't work as publicity anyway.
There's plenty of news where I think "Who?" myself.
Of course, I don't actually bother typing it out.
It's tied to your phone number and it's still that bad?
These people are just out of touch with the world, that's all.
Guess you'd call it karma coming back around.
Well, of course nobody knows she's a former Morning Musume member.
spending the effort to open an article about someone you don't know just to write "Who?" is also kind of much.
It's also a form of criticism, basically saying "Who? You don't need to write articles about nobodies."
Even Nogizaka's Shiraishi or Nishino aren't all that well known.
Still, I'll at least open the article to see what kind of person they are.
People like that probably can't properly read a newspaper either.
They probably don't understand the value of an article to begin with.
Even if she's a nobody to you, she's famous to someone else, you know.
Yahoo commenters really are attention-seekers, huh.
I think it'd be exactly the same even if a thread went up on Geinou/Sports Plus.
They actually know more than the fans do.
That's true when it's otaku from other groups.
On Yahoo's top page, it's genuinely regular people who really don't know her.
Whether a thread goes up or not just depends on the whim of whoever starts it, right?
Background and Key Points of This Topic
Yahoo comments require phone-number verification, leaning toward real-name use, yet commenters in the thread pointed out that it’s even more brutal there than on anonymous forums. Part of the reason is that even top-tier members from groups outside Hello! Project — like Nogizaka46’s Mai Shiraishi or Nanase Nishino — have only limited recognition among the general public. Morning Musume went through a similar “Wait, are they still around?” reaction when Sakura Oda graduated, and many in the thread saw this as a repeat of that pattern. The point of contention was whether to read the “Who?” comments as proof of low name recognition or just idle mockery — and opinions in the thread never fully converged.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Hello! Project) thread “Yahoo News: “Angerme’s Suzu Hashisako to Graduate” → Yahoo Comments: “Who?” “Who?” “Who?”.”
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