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The story
A thread titled ‘I guess we’ll never see another Momochi’ popped up on 5ch’s Hello! Project board. Momochi — former Morning Musume member Momoko Tsugunaga — first drew attention in variety shows after being kicked by Koji Kato, going on to build a name for herself on shows like Mecha-Ike. In the thread, posters floated names like Rosy’s Shimakawa and Kudo as potential successors, while opinions split over the kick that sparked her breakout, with some calling it ‘straight-up violence’ and others countering that ‘it was scripted and she’d agreed to it beforehand.’ The discussion also touched on Kato’s past on-screen encounter with AKB48’s Mayu Watanabe, debating whether that kind of staging was appropriate.
What people said
Nobody like her is coming back
I know Momochi, but what's this 'Juicy Equals Juicy' thing…?
Isn't it the opposite for most people?
What's even Momochi's signature song?
10=10
It's a tie
👈 song I don't recognize a Suzuki Airi song 👉
and fade away just as fast
why do Hello! Project members retire right when they're about to blow up?
Because they never actually blew up
Momoko Tsugunaga's never even landed a single ad deal
When Momochi retired, the two people she credited as the ones she owed her 15-year career to were Tsunku♂ and Koji Kato
Maybe someone like Nagano, Hayashi, Shimakawa, or Sugihara?
Is she the only Hello! Project member still riding high right now?
Looking at Momochi now, she's ridiculously cute — what is this, am I falling for her?
She was clearly forcing herself into a character she grew to hate, then retired and faded away
None of that was actually funny
To begin with, that Kato kick that sparked her breakout was just plain violence
No idea why people were cheering for that
What's the point of calling out now something that was fine back then?
Mecha-Ike was entirely scripted
It was worked out with Momoko beforehand, so it's basically pro wrestling
A bit she wrote herself got 13k likes and 7.77 million views
https://xxup.org/4bzaM.jpg
Pure comedic chops
https://video.twimg.com/amplify_video/1954812898670485504/vid/avc1/700×394/__y6MeLpZbMier5u.mp4
https://video.twimg.com/amplify_video/1954812973337423872/vid/avc1/700×394/Szs03LAD-lOeedne.mp4
Yeah, what's expected now really is different from 15 years ago
Shimakawa's probably got the best shot right now — even if she is basically Batako-san (the plain, hardworking maid character from Anpanman)
and it's blowing up all over again now that old footage resurfaced
You mean the Mayuyu thing?
That was scripted too — Mayuyu herself asked days in advance to bring Kato in and rehearse it
She was grateful to him for it afterward
Nao Asahina and Sayako Makita were on it too, but barely made the broadcast and basically faded into the background
Searching Yahoo News right now:
Momoko Tsugunaga: 8 results
Ami Kikuchi: 86 (moved abroad)
Kayo Noro: 782 (4 movies this year)
Nao Asahina: 98
Sayako Makita: 48
Rino Sashihara: 791 (including news about members of groups like Equal Love)
Airi Suzuki: 367
The younger members who came up alongside the Mobekimasu era have basically all graduated now, so it's ancient history from two generations back
Even the original Mobekimasu ('unconventional-looks' clique) lineup is completely gone since Ikuta graduated
Though a while after it aired, Da-iCE — who were on it — took off, and the comedy duo New York, who were on the good-looking-guys team, started getting more work
Wasn't Chou Tokkyu on that one? Assuming this was before M!LK had even formed
Background and Talking Points
Momoko Tsugunaga (nicknamed Momochi) is known for continuing to make her mark through physically-committed variety appearances even after leaving Morning Musume in 2014. Her breakout is said to have started with a bit in which she got kicked by Koji Kato and covered in powder — a reminder that variety TV back then tolerated far more extreme stunts than it does today. In recent years, rising compliance concerns have made that kind of physical-stunt segment much harder to pull off, so when the thread says ‘we’ll never see one again,’ it’s not just about any one person’s personality — it also reflects how much TV production styles have shifted. The thread’s mention of ‘Mobekimasu’ refers to a nickname for a group of Hello! Project members lumped together under an ‘unconventional-looks’ category at the time; since every member in that group has since graduated, the generational handover is complete, which is why posters call it ‘ancient history.’
*This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5ch (Hello! Project board) thread “I guess we’ll never see another Momochi.”
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