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The story
Former S/mileage member Tamura Meimi’s tweet recalling, “I couldn’t believe Karin failed the S/mileage 2nd generation audition,” was introduced on 5ch’s Hello! Project board. The thread discussed anecdotes of harsh coaching during the training-camp evaluations, behind-the-scenes selection stories about Miyamoto Karin (who later became the center of Juice=Juice), and how their generation — Tamura, Saho Riho, and Miyamoto Karin — was rated.
What people said
・From Tamura's perspective, Saho and Miyamoto were on a different level within their generation.
・Even at the ANGERME 2nd gen audition training camp, Miyamoto looked like she was on another level — she couldn't believe Miyamoto failed (at the time nobody knew Miyamoto was actually being held back to later become Juice=Juice's center).
@Tamura_Meimi
My next setback was probably at age 12. During the training-camp evaluation for the S/mileage audition, I couldn't keep a 16-beat rhythm, and my vocal teacher told me, "Tamura, get out!" I wasn't even a member yet, and I was filled with embarrassment thinking, "Is this footage of me getting yelled at really going to air on national TV?!"
I'm probably haunted by the number 16.
Teacher: "To fire up the room, I deliberately went off on Tamura — the one who was actually best at it."
That's an unreasonable scolding.
This is clearly something you shouldn't do.
Laughing while saying this makes me question that teacher's mental health.
I still can't accept that Nakanishi got in because of this.
Unforgivable — that garbage agency did something awful to Karin-chan.
It's entirely Tsunku♂'s fault that Chan-san got rejected.
If you're going to resent someone, resent Tsunku♂ and no one else.
Oh really? My bad.
It's the chairman who does the choosing.
From that point on, it's just a question of whether they fit what's needed.
In the entertainment world, that's a common technique used to tighten up the room.
Murota
Take-ashi ("Bamboo Legs")
Milk-chan goofing around
The Egg Trio
Yamaga-san crying
Yukanya crying too
Milk-chan's stare
Kosuga-san, already so thin she looks like she'll snap
Oda-Milk
Bakuwara Hotel
(Smug face)
Bakuwara already making this face
Oden-chan goofing around
Meanwhile Yuukarin
This person, who had probably already decided to quit
"An artist who can compete on the world stage"
"Japan's number one idol"
"Making it to Hollywood"
"I want to work hard so people take lots of cute photos of me"
"I'll do my best to make use of my Kansai dialect instead of getting pulled into standard Japanese"
http://cdn-ak.f.st-hatena.com/images/fotolife/m/michinao/20110716/20110716142701.jpg
https://kizuna.5ch.io/test/read.cgi/morningcoffee/1484961460/1
⊂((Third time's the charm! (lol) Fujii Rio))⊃
http://ameblo.jp/kobushi-factory/entry-12239858213.html
With ANGERME's Nakanishi Kana-san and Hirose Ayaka!
http://stat.ameba.jp/user_images/20170120/14/kobushi-factory/8a/be/j/o0480036013849723828.jpg
It's slowly cracking me up (lol)
Nakanishi-san is hilarious lol lol
Come to think of it, I played the "10 times game" (a confession/dare game) with Nakanishi-san recently too (lol)
Back during the S/mileage additional-member audition too, we practiced together, and even though we had different rooms,
"Can I sleep with you?!"
— I went and asked her that (lol)
Apparently in the early days, even using dialect was banned in Juice=Juice.
Yeah, and they took her pink color away too.
Saho Riho
Suzuki Kanon
Oda Sakura
Ogata Haruna
Katsuta Rina
Tamura Meimi
Murota Mizuki
Aikawa Maho
Miyamoto Karin
Uemura Akari
Fujii Rio
Yamagishi Riko
Ichioka Reina
Yokokawa Yui
Horie Kizuki
Kokata Risa
Takase Kurumi
"Bakuwara" is the nickname of ANGERME's Katsuta Rina (aka "Rinapu~"). It originally came from youth slang, "bakushou = bakuwara" ("hilarious laughter"), and Rinapu~ herself used it with that original meaning in her blog posts — but somewhere along the way it turned into her own personal nickname instead.
A generation full of nothing but problem children lol
They used to call it the golden generation, but
looking back at it now, it wasn't anything special lol
Juice=Juice's version was even more brutal — stacking on handshakes with trainees.
Even though they're both way past their prime now.
Well, this is a story from 15 years ago.
Makes you wonder whether today's active members will even be remembered in 15 years.
Their popularity crashed hard, you know.
It's over for them now.
It was pitiful enough to practically call it a real public execution.
Both the ones who got picked and the ones who didn't were all crying.
A video that cruel shouldn't even be allowed to exist.
So many mistakes it's actually funny lol
Background and Key Points
For readers unfamiliar with Hello! Project: S/mileage (now ANGERME) is one of several Hello! Project idol groups produced by Tsunku♂, and its members are chosen through televised, multi-stage audition training camps where vocal coaches evaluate hopefuls in front of cameras. Tamura Meimi, Saho Riho, and Miyamoto Karin all auditioned in the group’s “2nd generation” cohort around 2011; Miyamoto did not make the cut for S/mileage at the time, while Nakanishi Kana did. Miyamoto later resurfaced as the center of Juice=Juice, a separate Hello! Project unit, which is why her original rejection reads as startling in hindsight — a “failed” idol audition in this system doesn’t end a career so much as redirect it to another group.
The thread’s actual disagreement isn’t over Miyamoto’s talent — posters agree she and Saho were clearly ahead of their peers — but over who to blame for her rejection: some point at producer Tsunku♂ as the sole decision-maker, others shift blame to the agency or the audition process itself, and a side debate breaks out over whether the harsh on-camera scolding was legitimate coaching or manufactured drama for the broadcast.
What the thread doesn’t spell out is that the coach’s own comment (“I deliberately went off on the one who was actually best, to fire up the room”) describes a known reality-TV technique — staged conflict for footage — which complicates any reading of the audition as a straightforward talent ranking. Readers unfamiliar with Japanese idol audition shows may take the on-camera drama at face value rather than as edited television.
*This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5ch (Hello! Project board) thread “[Emotional] Tamura Meimi: “I Couldn’t Believe Karin Failed the S/mileage Gen 2 Audition” / “Saho Riho and Miyamoto Karin Were on Another Level for Their Generation”.”
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