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The story
News that songwriter Asahi Tazaki will write and compose the title track for a Hello! Project idol group’s new single has split opinion on 5ch’s Hello! Project board. The thread saw a wave of questions along the lines of “why hire her when she barely has a track record?”, with posters speculating it may simply be a discretionary pick by the agency’s chairman, and the discussion expanding into comparisons with other songwriters like Hoshibe, Takui, and Tsunku. On the other hand, some argued that as long as the song itself turns out good, the backstory behind her hiring shouldn’t matter — the real test should be the quality of the track itself.
What people said
why drag it down now?
Line distribution, composing, songwriting — it's a world where everything comes down to buttering up old men.
That honestly sounds plausible.
Aoi Yamazaki's probably the same deal.
But Yamazaki actually writes top-tier songs for Hello! in the 2020s, so fair enough.
Come to think of it, hasn't Ameko Kodama been quiet lately?
She's the type who's openly against that kind of old-man favoritism — did that end up putting distance between her and the old guard execs?
Why is Up-Front still keeping her on the payroll?
Are they planning to groom her as a songwriter the way they did with Hoshibe, Takui, and Eric, even though she never made it as a performer herself?
She hasn't had a hit in something like 15 years, right?
That's obviously because she just doesn't have the talent.
She's actually not with Up-Front anymore, though.
covers above all else,
nothing but covers,
covers even when they flop,
and they just keep cranking out cover after cover after cover, no matter what.
Clearly no talent there.
Why Tazaki?
Did the chairman just want to throw her some work?
She's apparently doing underground idol festivals or something, and she can't have much of a following there.
And weren't both the first and second M-line Music narrators from Vitamin Sweet too?
Are they really that desperate to hand her work?
The narration used to rotate between two people, now it's down to just one.
Huh?
Would a Checkers cover have been better?
That's probably all there is to it.
Even Tsunku acknowledges Takui's talent.
But what does Tazaki actually bring to the table?
Honestly, I think this is real too.
That's just the kind of agency it is.
Yumeha too, obviously.
They still seem to run things with that Showa-era mindset, like how Ayaya Matsuura supposedly sailed through the paperwork screening just because she shared a birthday with the chairman.
Tazaki roulette, hit.
This is basically punishment, isn't it.
Asahi Tazaki walks away with several million yen in royalties.
Basically, they're just supporting Tazaki financially.
Same goes for Tsunku's and Takui's songs.
The stupidity of the "it's all about the song" crowd is next level.
Same with the Joujou Gundan crew, and wasn't there some enka singer who did a collab with Hello! members too?
Well, bundling unrelated talent together like this has always been Up-Front's way of doing business.
You never know, she might turn into the next Aoi Yamazaki.
Hello! Project is just something they keep running to support the staff.
I've been saying this forever on Ore ga Ookami (a long-running Hello! Project fan forum).
Idiots keep going on about "it's all business," but come on, this isn't even good business.
They only get one single a year, and this will probably end up being the last single for one or two members, plus it's the crucial first title track featuring the new members — how could someone who hasn't had a hit in 15 years possibly think it was okay to take that on?
Background and Key Points of the Debate
Songwriting credits at Hello! Project aren’t decided through open calls or writers’ hit track records — they’re said to be left entirely to the agency’s discretion. In this thread too, posters repeatedly speculated that the reason for her hiring came down to “the chairman’s discretion” or “internal agency relationships,” but it’s worth noting none of this is an official explanation — it remains speculation on the part of posters. The debate largely splits into two camps: those who think hiring should be judged by track record, and those who say the circumstances behind the hiring don’t matter as long as the song itself turns out well. Asahi Tazaki’s actual career details and contract terms were only discussed in fragments within the thread, so a fair assessment will largely depend on hearing the finished song once it’s released.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Hello! Project board) thread “Sorry, but why do we have to take a song from Asahi Tazaki when she has basically no track record?“.
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