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The story
Nanami Tanabe (nicknamed “Tanumin”), a former Hello! Project trainee, reunited with Morning Musume.’14’s Maimi Yajima and °C-ute’s Saki Nakajima for the first time in over a decade — and it became a hot topic on 5ch’s Hello! Project board. If this is indeed their first time together since the stage play “Sugar Spot,” in which she played Yajima’s little sister back during her trainee days, thread posters pointed out that it marks roughly 14 years since they last shared a stage. Tanabe went through the trainee program but never passed the Morning Musume. audition, and later was active as a member of ONEPIXCEL. The thread filled up with posts looking back on the trainee pecking order and audition timing from that era, with opinions divided over why she was never promoted or never passed.
What people said
Don't phrase it like Sha Ran Q's hit song 'Look at the Sky'
For the record, the song she performed that day was 'Campus Life ~Glad I Was Born~'
Back when Yaguchi was on maternity leave
'Airi Suzuki's Tuesday The NIGHT #165'
September 10, 2019
ONEPIXCEL's Nanami Tanabe dances alongside Airi Suzuki!
A mishap during their °C-ute 'Dance de Bakoon!' performance!?
Wasn't she the one who never got promoted?
It's less that she 'couldn't' and more that she couldn't wait it out
Also, she wasn't good with physical contact (handshake events)
Still only 26, though
Same age as Tanimoto and Nonaka, huh
Because she was too kind-hearted
She quit before Kobushi's lineup was even chosen
She could've gotten into Country Girls, Kobushi, or Tsubaki Factory
isn't there something that can be done about them?
Now I remember — she was from the Egg days, back when only the very best of the best actually got to debut
everyone except Den-chan, the blonde one, and Tanu (Tanabe) was just too much to handle
If that's the last time, it was 2012 — so this reunion is their first time together in 14 years
Lol, wrong reply (misfire)
Nanami Yanagawa
Nanami Kubota
https://kawaiinanamin.com/loader/img/nup561.jpg
This would still be popular even today
The agency's dumb too — letting talent like that slip away like that
How did it come to this?
She wasn't good with physical contact, so ONEPIXCEL probably worked out for the best
These days, even Tamenaga and Ishiyama get talked out of quitting
why couldn't this girl pass the audition?
It's all about timing
In Hello! Project, timing matters more than talent or looks
Background and Talking Points
Hello! Project’s trainee system has long operated by handpicking new-group members from among its trainees. Nanami Tanabe came up through this same trainee program, but never passed the Morning Musume. audition — and every time a new group formed afterward, whether Juice=Juice, Country Girls, or later Kobushi Factory and Tsubaki Factory, fans kept bringing her up and asking why she was never chosen. What split opinion in the thread was whether her departure at the time was her own decision, or simply came down to where the pass line and timing happened to fall. Trainees’ fates hinge not just on talent but on when auditions are held and which groups happen to have open slots — and the view that “in Hello! Project, timing matters more than talent or looks” is one longtime fans have voiced again and again. Whether this reunion was pure coincidence or the continuation of an old bond wasn’t made clear in the thread.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Hello! Project board) thread “[Great News] Nanami Tanabe Meets Maimi Yajima and Saki Nakajima for the First Time in Over a Decade wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.”
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