Hello! Project OG Popularity Ranking Exposed by Who Does (and Doesn’t) Get a Solo Calendar

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The story

Hello! Project fans have been buzzing over an unofficial ‘popularity ranking’ of the group’s graduated members (OGs). The yardsticks people used were informal at best — whether a member has her own solo calendar, and where she ranks in the fan community app ‘JP Room.’ Some argued that members with solo calendars tend not to sell as well on the group’s own merchandise, while others pointed out that hardcore fans buy multiple copies anyway, making a simple popularity ranking hard to pin down. The thread also dug into specifics on individual members, like Ozeki’s recent rise in popularity and how hard Ishida’s fans ‘stack’ purchases at events.

What people said

1AnonymousSep 3, 2026 21:47
Sato
Fukumura
Morito
4AnonymousSep 3, 2026 21:49
Fukumura's popular though?
37AnonymousSep 3, 2026 22:00
Re: #4
It's probably Sato >>>>>>>>> [an unbreakable wall] >>>> Fukumura, right?
5AnonymousSep 3, 2026 21:49
Miyamoto and Inaba both have solo calendars, so it's effectively:

Sato
Miyamoto
Inaba

in that order
7AnonymousSep 3, 2026 21:50
Ozeki's the one who kills the credibility of this whole ranking
9AnonymousSep 3, 2026 21:51
Re: #7
Not surprising at all — she's got a lot of big-spending hardcore fans ("futoota").
8AnonymousSep 3, 2026 21:51
Members who've recently put out a solo calendar rank lower here — makes sense, fans are already satisfied buying that.
11AnonymousSep 3, 2026 21:51
No excuses like 'effectively' or 'credibility' needed here.
12AnonymousSep 3, 2026 21:51
No way, Sasaki?
15AnonymousSep 3, 2026 21:52
Re: #12
Rikako had her solo calendar announced on the same day, so people aren't buying this one.
13AnonymousSep 3, 2026 21:52
If you just want an autograph and don't care whose, Sasaki I guess.
14AnonymousSep 3, 2026 21:52
Probably:
3 — Sato, Fukumura, Morito, Ishida
1 — Asakura, Ozeki
0 — everyone else
16AnonymousSep 3, 2026 21:52
What happened to Manakan?
18AnonymousSep 3, 2026 21:53
Re: #16
Solo calendars already announced:
Miyamoto, Inaba, Sasaki
17AnonymousSep 3, 2026 21:53
Well, if Sasaki has a solo calendar too, that explains it.
19AnonymousSep 3, 2026 21:54
It's because Miyamoto and Inaba have solo calendars.
20AnonymousSep 3, 2026 21:54
Fukumura, Ishida, Sato, and Morito will probably get solo calendars too, they just haven't been announced yet. Sato usually announces hers around late October every year.
21AnonymousSep 3, 2026 21:54
Solo calendar or not, this is its own separate thing — real fans buy it regardless.
23AnonymousSep 3, 2026 21:54
I bumped the solo-calendar group up 3 ranks:

Sato
Fukumura
Morito
Miyamoto
Inaba
Ishida
Asakura
Ozeki
Sasaki
Uemura
Miyazaki
Takeuchi

Seems pretty fair, honestly.
24AnonymousSep 3, 2026 21:55
Latest JP Room popularity ranking:
Sato
Inaba
Miyamoto
Ishida
Morito
Fukumura
Sasaki
Asakura
Uemura
Takeuchi
Ozeki
25AnonymousSep 3, 2026 21:55
Re: #1
Members with solo calendars:
Fukumura, Miyamoto, Ishida, Sato, Morito, Inaba, Uemura, Sasaki

Members without:
Takeuchi, Miyazaki, Ozeki, Asakura
27AnonymousSep 3, 2026 21:56
Ozeki's actually gotten more popular since JP Room started.
39AnonymousSep 3, 2026 22:00
Re: #27
Fans of the members touring with M-Spe (a Hello! Project live segment) have started adding her as their second or third favorite.
28AnonymousSep 3, 2026 21:57
Multiple purchases are probably rare, so this likely reflects the raw number of fans each member has.
30AnonymousSep 3, 2026 21:58
I think Ma-chan's calendar announcement for next year is coming up soon — last year it was around this time too.
38AnonymousSep 3, 2026 22:00
Ozeki's popularity has really been climbing lately.
53AnonymousSep 3, 2026 22:05
Re: #38
Her singing's decent too.
48AnonymousSep 3, 2026 22:04
Miyamoto, Inaba, and Sasaki all have solo calendars coming, so people probably won't buy this one.
52AnonymousSep 3, 2026 22:05
Re: #48
Out of everyone here, Karin-chan has the most fans loyal enough to actually buy it.
57AnonymousSep 3, 2026 22:07
Chii already put hers out in February, so there won't be another one.
59AnonymousSep 3, 2026 22:07
Re: #57
Next year's will come out next year.
63AnonymousSep 3, 2026 22:09
Isn't a calendar basically just a poster substitute? Does everyone just throw it out once the year's over?
70AnonymousSep 3, 2026 22:13
Re: #63
It's more like a book, really. People don't throw it away.
74AnonymousSep 3, 2026 22:13
Re: #63
No way anyone's throwing it out.
64AnonymousSep 3, 2026 22:10
Even a solo calendar has pretty bad value for money compared to a photobook.
79AnonymousSep 3, 2026 22:14
Re: #64
Ma-chan's solo calendar has 50 pages, so it's satisfying enough for the price.
69AnonymousSep 3, 2026 22:13
Did Manakan's fans run out of money or something?
72AnonymousSep 3, 2026 22:13
Re: #69
She's got a solo calendar, that's why.
77AnonymousSep 3, 2026 22:14
Actually, why would you even think Ishida's more popular than Morito?
81AnonymousSep 3, 2026 22:15
Re: #77
At events, Ishida's fans stack purchases like crazy, so she outsells Morito several times over.
83AnonymousSep 3, 2026 22:16


Background and Key Points of This Discussion

The ‘solo calendar’ referenced here is a photobook-style product that the talent agency releases individually for its more popular members, separate from the group’s official merchandise — and whether or not a member gets one is often treated as a rough gauge of her popularity. ‘JP Room,’ meanwhile, is a community feature within the official fan app that lets fans interact member by member, and its post counts are used by fans as a way to measure how active a member’s fanbase is. It’s worth noting, though, that neither of these is an official popularity poll or sales ranking — they’re just informal metrics fans have pieced together on their own. Within the thread, the theory that members with solo calendars don’t sell as well on group merchandise ran up against the counterargument that especially loyal fans buy both, underscoring that no single metric really captures the full picture.

※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Hello! Project) thread ‘OG Popularity Ranking Gets Brutally Visualized lol.’

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