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The story
A flute performance video posted to Instagram by Kitagawa Rio — a former member of Morning Musume。’25 who now works as a TV Tokyo announcer — became a hot topic on a Hello! Project thread on 5ch. Her smooth, clear tone drew surprised praise like “saved it in seconds” and “what a beautiful tone,” though some cooler voices pushed back, arguing that calling it “professional level” was an overstatement since she’d never won a competition prize. A photo from when she reportedly started playing flute seriously at age 11 was also shared, backing up the talent she’d talked about since her idol days.
The tone is incredibly clear and smooth, it’s amazing
Tsunku♂ should’ve written her a song using the flute back in her Morning Musume days
Source: instagram.com / original post here
What people said
but… was it really this professional-level?
It's like calling Toku-san 'pro level,'
and doing the flute melody parts of songs on actual flute would've been nice as well
I got so absorbed I ended up listening several times
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah
I thought I saw it at a bar event or her debut showcase, but it was the Solo Fes, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah
That's it! Thanks, gonna go rewatch it after all this time
Ask that and the whole debate's over
Guess the 'debut showcase' memory was just me misremembering lol
Are you forcing that take?
More surprising is that her speaking really does sound like a proper announcer
https://i.imgur.com/R8yyIDq.mp4
Thank you, upload god!
Saved it in seconds
Ichika-chan plays violin, not flute, lol
That's about as different as trumpet and guitar
That laugh at the end hasn't changed one bit from her idol days 😭
Come back, Rio-chan 😭
cu-cu-cu-cu-cu-cu-cute
Guess she's been playing flute since she was quite a little kid
No wonder she gets such a nice tone
Why don't they let her perform more, solo or on Hello! Project stages,
like Kobayashi-san from BEYOOOOONDS or Ichika-san from Juice=Juice does
Morning Musume's management is way too set in their ways
If they let Kitagawa play flute just because it's her special skill,
then they'd have to let Makino play taiko too, or it wouldn't be balanced
The flute clip I just posted is already at 10,000 views
Guess videos related to announcer Kitagawa really do take off
Feels like even the antis are contributing to the view count
The top line of the second image,
'Announcer Kitagawa's signature ○○!?'
was pretty funny
As always, her punchlines are stupidly cute every time
Seriously, so true
During last year's spring tour and Winter Hello! she sometimes looked like all the life had drained from her expression
Her expression was good even at the graduation live, but even seeing her from like 20cm away, her back and shoulders had gotten scarily thin, almost skeletal — it was pitiful
I really want Rio-san to be rewarded and hit it big more than anyone
Background and Key Points of This Topic
Kitagawa Rio graduated from Morning Musume。’25 and now works as a staff announcer at TV Tokyo. Her flute playing had been mentioned as a special talent since her idol days, but she rarely performed it in earnest on stage, so this Instagram post gave fans a fresh look at just how skilled she really is. Opinions split on the thread over how to take the phrase “professional level” — some called it an exaggeration given the lack of an objective track record like competition awards, while others praised her tone and technical skill at face value. The photos she posted show she’d been practicing since around age 11, meaning this wasn’t a sudden reveal but the payoff of years of accumulated practice — a bit of background that’s easy to miss from the scattered comments alone.
*This article is compiled from excerpts and summaries of the 5ch (Hello! Project) thread “Kitagawa Rio-chaso, right? She’s always said she could play the flute — did you know she was this professional-level?” (“-chaso” is an affectionate, cutesy variant of “-chan”).
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