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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
Fukumura
Morito
It's probably Sato >>>>>>>>> [an unbreakable wall] >>>> Fukumura, right?
Sato
Miyamoto
Inaba
in that order
Not surprising at all — she's got a lot of big-spending hardcore fans ("futoota").
Rikako had her solo calendar announced on the same day, so people aren't buying this one.
3 — Sato, Fukumura, Morito, Ishida
1 — Asakura, Ozeki
0 — everyone else
Solo calendars already announced:
Miyamoto, Inaba, Sasaki
Sato
Fukumura
Morito
Miyamoto
Inaba
Ishida
Asakura
Ozeki
Sasaki
Uemura
Miyazaki
Takeuchi
Seems pretty fair, honestly.
Sato
Inaba
Miyamoto
Ishida
Morito
Fukumura
Sasaki
Asakura
Uemura
Takeuchi
Ozeki
Members with solo calendars:
Fukumura, Miyamoto, Ishida, Sato, Morito, Inaba, Uemura, Sasaki
Members without:
Takeuchi, Miyazaki, Ozeki, Asakura
Fans of the members touring with M-Spe (a Hello! Project live segment) have started adding her as their second or third favorite.
Her singing's decent too.
Out of everyone here, Karin-chan has the most fans loyal enough to actually buy it.
Next year's will come out next year.
It's more like a book, really. People don't throw it away.
No way anyone's throwing it out.
Ma-chan's solo calendar has 50 pages, so it's satisfying enough for the price.
She's got a solo calendar, that's why.
At events, Ishida's fans stack purchases like crazy, so she outsells Morito several times over.
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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