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The story
A thread appeared on the Hello! Project subforum in which a new fan who had spent six months supporting Juice=Juice’s Rei Inoue (Rei-Rei) announced their retirement, writing “I’m just exhausted now.” The post recounted a support journey full of firsts — their first event, their first cheki (instant-photo) session — but most replies compared it to the pattern of “Gato-san,” a well-known regular poster notorious for repeatedly writing emotional “retirement” essays, and cast doubt on whether the story was even true. Still, some commenters took it at face value and offered genuine advice like “just do your fan activities at your own pace,” and the thread grew into a broader debate about emotional distance and burnout in oshi culture.
What people said
My first time supporting an idol. My first event, my first cheki session, my first chat session.
Over these six months I got to experience so many firsts thanks to meeting a woman named Rei Inoue. I was happy.
It's Gato-san again lol.
Can't hide that literary flair and sense of humor, huh w
I'm just a casual visitor so I don't really get how the small-timers feel, but I do get the loneliness of watching her waist go national and drift far away.
>watching her waist go national and drift far away
What kind of physical sensation is that supposed to be?
In the end you're just being exploited.
Juice=Juice just doesn't have any real substance to fall for.
Morning Musume and Angerme have solid strengths in performance and visuals, which is why their fans don't leave.
https://live.nicovideo.jp/watch/lv351400617
Use your head a little more.
The technique never gets old ww
I like the threads this guy makes ww
Exactly.
Angerme fans have good taste.
Compare that to how boring the threads made by 'Juice' fans (a jab at Juice=Juice's name, since the kanji for 'juice' also reads as 'soup') are.
Yeah, their tour tickets aren't selling at all, and neither are their CDs or Blu-rays.
If anything they're dead last in Hello! Project.
If you can't manage that, all that's left is to leave.
Dunno who you are, but bye-bye.
Someone without their own compass can't really oshi anyone.
You justify yourself with the word 'oshi-katsu,' pile your whole life onto someone else just to cheer them on, and never grow or challenge yourself — do you even have a compass of your own? w
Ease up lol, say that and there's no point to any of this ww
Don't overkill the guy w
A narrow-minded take like that isn't worth reading.
If you actually had your own compass to begin with, you wouldn't be the type of Hello! Project fan who's desperate to cheer for someone else.
Background and Talking Points
On 5ch’s idol boards, emotionally-written posts announcing a “graduation” or “retirement” appear on a regular basis, and they’re often mocked by tying them back to similar past posts with an “oh, it’s that guy again” reaction. This time too, the writing style and structure felt familiar to readers, so the conversation focused more on rating the poster’s “literary talent” than on whether the story was actually true. That said, genuine oshi-activity burnout isn’t a rare phenomenon — spending on events and merchandise, plus the pressure of comparing yourself to others on social media, has been pointed to elsewhere as a real source of strain. Several replies in the thread also offered the practical advice to “ignore everyone else and go at your own pace,” so a mix of mockery and genuinely useful advice is what characterizes this thread. Worth clarifying to avoid misunderstanding: the “goodbye” in the title is the common phrase for retiring from oshi activities, not a reference to self-harm.
※This article is compiled as an excerpt and summary of the 5ch (Hello! Project) thread “I’m a new ‘More-mi’ fan, but I’m already exhausted. Sorry, Rei-Rei. Goodbye.“
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