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The story
On 5ch’s Hello! Project board, a thread sprang up reminiscing about an audition generation that produced popular members like Kamikoryo Moe, Asakura Kiki, and Inaba Manaka. As posters traded memories of the era’s contestants and their later careers, one comment about Kamikoryo Moe — “even though she made it big solo, it never translated into anything for the group” — sparked debate over whether an ace’s individual popularity actually lifts the group as a whole. Other candidates like Nonaka Miki and Shimamura Kiuta also came up for discussion, in an exchange only longtime fans who remember the era could have.
What people said
Nah, the only one who's the strongest is Kamikoryo lolololol
Kamikoryo really blew up, huh.
I remember Asakura and Nonaka being in it.
Makino, Niinuma, Tanimoto, Onoda, Danbara, Yamaki, Funaki, Hamaura, Shimamura
Ah, the first one — the one she didn't make it through?
Those two are in a different league.
If you want names on par with Kamiko, it's Michishige, Tsugunaga, Makino.
M-m-m-m-m-m-m-m-Makino?????????
Confirmed Makino fan lolololol
Makino fans show up everywhere lolololololol
Only one made it to the final round too, so it felt like the outcome was decided in advance.
Those kids were still little, though.
The age gap's way too big — they were probably just trainee filler anyway.
Kamiko's spot must have been locked in for certain.
Kamiko was already a high school freshman by then, so those kids were just kids.
Then right after she graduated, I watched Juice=Juice blow up as a whole unit, and I thought, this is what I wanted to see all along.
Kamikoryo kept Angerme selling for 5 years.
You guys were done in 8 months.
So basically all of Hello! Project's main members from a while back came out of this audition.
Onoda was such a serious kid back then 😂
There are a lot of old-timers like that on Ōkami (a veteran-heavy old-school Hello!Project forum), aren't there.
On Ōkami they get genuinely mad at the MC — like 'why didn't you study that much before coming?!' lol
It's a script, lol
I've seen it happen over and over.
Why are the old-timers on Ōkami so out of touch?
D-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-Danbara??????
Looking at this, Kamikoryo, Nonaka, Asakura, and Shimamura were obviously going to pass, right?
Nonaka's face is smaller and her legs are longer than you guys realize.
Just remember that and go home.
I don't usually pay attention to it, but Cheru's small face really is something else.
She was an absolute next-level talent.
She started out basically winning by herself.
Background and Points of Debate
The “Kamiko audition” discussed in this thread is, as post 10 notes, also referred to by some posters as the “Ogata-Nonaka audition,” showing that even participants in the discussion don’t fully agree on the name or the details. Opinions comparing Kamikoryo Moe’s individual popularity to the group’s overall sales performance came up, but Hello! Project has seen both patterns before — cases where one ace pulls the group along and other members grow afterward, and cases where popularity is spread across multiple members from the start — and fans remain divided on which is more desirable. It’s worth noting that the comments about ages and career histories rely solely on the memories of fans who followed the era at the time, and haven’t been cross-checked against official records.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Hello! Project) thread “Back when Kamikoryo, Asakura, Inaba, and that crowd were around.”
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