A thread on 5ch’s Hello! Project board asked whether anyone had predicted, back when idol group Juice=Juice’s Ebata Misaki first joined, that she’d become the central member she is today. Posters recalled praise for her looks going back to her trainee days, and some claimed that at the scouting stage people were already saying “if we land this girl, this group will dominate.” Others pushed back, arguing that with senior members like Danbara Yamato and Inoue Haruka commanding so much presence, it’s a stretch to call her a true central member — leaving opinion split.
What people said
1AnonymousSep 16, 2026 23:10
I thought she was cute back in her trainee days and right when she joined Juice, but what exactly did the people who called it from the start see in Eba back then?
2AnonymousSep 16, 2026 23:11
She was pretty good at handling MC duties even from early on after joining, though.
3AnonymousSep 16, 2026 23:12
At least visually, she's got to be the number one beauty of that generation.
5AnonymousSep 16, 2026 23:13
Eba's the only one who ever gets a thread made about her.
13AnonymousSep 16, 2026 23:18
With Danbara and Inoue being so strong, she doesn't really give off "central member" vibes.
18AnonymousSep 16, 2026 23:24
Re: #13
She won't graduate at 25, so she's blocking her juniors' chances to shine.
Time to step aside already.
14AnonymousSep 16, 2026 23:20
A second coming of the Ichii Sayaka-style rags-to-riches story.
16AnonymousSep 16, 2026 23:24
Eba's real strength has got to be media appearances.
17AnonymousSep 16, 2026 23:24
Her batch-mates were so underwhelming that it basically became "well, it's just Eba then."
19AnonymousSep 16, 2026 23:24
A tier below "Rito Kame" (likely a nickname for another idol or group — exact reference unclear).
People were saying back then that whichever group landed Eba would become the dominant one.
23AnonymousSep 16, 2026 23:27
It also helps that they've got the "Ebamifu" pairing (a fan-shipped duo nickname combining Eba and Mifu) working as a selling point.
24AnonymousSep 16, 2026 23:27
Tabata Shintaro: "Eba-chan gets the best of both worlds — she pulls in the girls' votes while still pulling in the guys' votes too."
25AnonymousSep 16, 2026 23:30
Kawashima's same-age peers at other groups — like Yokaze and Tsutsui — are the vocal centers of their groups, but Kawashima still isn't the main vocalist.
26AnonymousSep 16, 2026 23:31
That's because there are people ahead of her in line.
27AnonymousSep 16, 2026 23:38
Having a young member as your core is basically another way of saying your group's depth is thin, though.
34AnonymousSep 17, 2026 01:28
Re: #1
Star power.
Go check out Tsunku's actual assessment notes on note (the blogging platform) —
he had Eba figured out properly from the start.
Background and Talking Points
The vocal-cover-video view counts cited in the thread (Fukuda Marin topping 1 million versus roughly 400,000 for Ebata Misaki) suggest Ebata isn’t actually the group’s top draw in terms of pure numbers — even as her visual appeal and media presence have been rated highly and consistently since she joined. Posts claiming that scouts said “landing this girl means becoming a dominant group” serve as evidence that some people foresaw her later rise even back then. At the same time, pushback citing the strong presence of senior members like Danbara Yamato and Inoue Haruka argues she isn’t quite a “central member” yet — and at the root of the thread’s disagreement is the fact that fans don’t share a common yardstick (draw power, exposure, or star quality) for what “central member” even means.
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