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The story
On the Hello! Project board, it became a hot topic that Juice=Juice’s Endo Ayakari and Kobushi Factory/ANGERME’s Kudo Yua (nicknamed “Tako”) are “second cousins” (hatoko). The thread started out with suspicion that “she failed auditions for three years straight, so this must be a nepotism hire,” but that suspicion was shot down once it came out that Endo had no relationship with Kudo before joining, and only learned about the family connection after becoming a member. Replies went on to point out that Okai Chisato and Okai Asuna are sisters, and Yajima Maimi and Takeuchi Akari are cousins, with many commenters expressing surprise at just how wide Hello! Project’s web of relatives runs.
What people said
and people kept asking
"what kind of hire is this?"
"what kind of girl is she?"
well, if it's nepotism, that finally makes sense
Cousin? Second cousin? Niece?
It's a second cousin (hatoko).
What's with saying "Mōmu"?
You're the one who started this thread, aren't you?
The agency should sue over this.
That "image" thing is just your own fantasy
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HWxkGFiboAAYrNb.jpg
but they barely kept in touch as relatives — Kudo only
found out about it after Endo had already joined
The people saying it just vanished overnight, didn't they
and the creepy old "wolf" fans (slang for older guys fixated on young idols) obsessed with Enaka disappeared too
super-skilled but uuugly
skilled and cute
no skill, uuugly
skilled, uuugly
skilled, uuugly
no skill, uuugly
no skill but cute
no skill, uuugly
no skill, uuugly
skilled and cute
no skill, uuugly
(using the old idol-forum "skill vs. looks" meme)
that's the kind of group this is
Uuugly, uuugly
I actually know more about Johnny's (the male idol agency) than this
Aren't there probably plenty of people like that already?
Endo wasn't this "chin-idol"-looking (slang for idols known for a strong jawline) when she joined anyway,
so I thought it was a fair call
Yajima Maimi & Takeuchi Akari — cousins
Kudo Yua & Endo Ayakari — second cousins
No, they're so distant from each other she barely even remembers it
I see
I've also only got two second cousins I actually know of myself (well, they're celebrities, so it's just me knowing about them one-sidedly)
Both her and Sakurai — this audition batch is just way too fishy
No, she said she genuinely didn't notice at the time
They'd only met once, back when they were little kids
Apparently that's exactly what made her look up to Kudo and aim to follow in her footsteps
Ahh I see! That's a really easy-to-follow comparison
I get it now!!
Even when I asked an AI about "the grandchild of a sibling in faith," it didn't come up with an answer like this
"The grandchild of a brother in faith"
I tried googling this to track down the original tweet, and this is what came up
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
A “second cousin” (hatoko) relationship — tracing back through cousins at the grandparent generation — is one step more distant than first cousins, and legally counts as a sixth-degree relative in Japan. Within the Hello! Project family of groups, there have been earlier cases where members turned out to be relatives only after the fact, such as sisters Okai Chisato and Okai Asuna, or cousins Yajima Maimi and Takeuchi Akari. This time, Kudo Yua and Endo Ayakari join that same lineage. What divided the thread was whether the “nepotism hire” suspicion actually held up — information emerged showing Endo had no prior relationship with Kudo before joining and only learned of the connection afterward, which led the thread to largely dismiss the suspicion. A point readers can easily get wrong is assuming “being relatives” automatically means “getting an advantage in hiring,” but given that the two were essentially strangers to each other, a coincidental blood relation and a nepotism hire turn out to be two very different things.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Hello! Project board) thread “Wait, hold on! Is Endo actually related to Kudo “Tako”?“
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