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The story
A thread on the Hello! Project board asked the “what if” question: what if Runo Yokaze, Mifuu Kawashima, Hana Goto, and Reina Uemura had joined Morning Musume.? Hello! Project has long split new members not just into Morning Musume. but across multiple groups like Juice=Juice and ANGERME, and the four members discussed here belong to the same generation, nicknamed the “Dekabo” cohort. Opinions in the thread were split — some said “Kawashima at least was essential for Musume,” while others argued “Morning Musume. isn’t the flagship group anymore, Juice=Juice is the center now, so it wouldn’t matter who joined.”
What people said
but now that it's fallen from that spot, meh, whatever
They just want instant results
That's what happens when you're no longer the flagship
There's no breathing room
Still, I think Kawashima alone was necessary
1. The infighting stopped
2. They started actually trying on their YouTube comments
There are upsides too
It's not that the vibe changed because Fukumura, Ikuta, and Makino quit — it changed because Juice=Juice became the top group in Hello! Project and Morning Musume. got demoted to a side group, that's all
Goto, Ebata, Yokaze, Okamura, Yonemura, Uemura
I'd have wanted Yonemura in Musume over Uemura
Though for Uemura, I do think she'd have suited ANGERME or Juice better than Rosy
Rairii too
Also want the '07 generation — Yokaze, Kawashima, Tsutsui, and Matsumoto
That's because Sakurai and Yumigeta gave up fighting reality over their pointless pride
I think Sakurai would get in as the talk/MC member
These other ones can't really MC, can they
A sorry excuse for an MC member
but Hello! Project fans in general didn't want this
To begin with, there's basically no one in Hello! Project fandom right now interested in anything besides Juice=Juice
If there were, tickets would be selling
Everyone else is ace-caliber
not necessarily in any particular member
That was true once
These days it's Juice
both at home and abroad
Does being currently active even factor into that name recognition?
Don't look away from the reality that Morning Musume. is the one people all over the world actually know
Nobody outside the fandom can name a single current Musume member
Go ask your mom and see
Background and Key Points of the Discussion
Hello! Project has long operated a system in which new members are assigned not only to Morning Musume. but also to other groups such as Juice=Juice, ANGERME, and Rosy Kuroki, with placement decided through auditions and trainee-era assignments. The “Dekabo” cohort mentioned in the thread refers to a set of agemates whose activities were announced together, and includes Hana Goto, Runo Yokaze, Mifuu Kawashima, and Reina Uemura. The debate centered on whether Morning Musume. still deserves to be called the “flagship” group: some argued that since Juice=Juice now leads in popularity and name recognition, “it wouldn’t make much difference who joined at this point,” while others expressed regret over the individual talents of members like Kawashima and Yokaze. Note that comparisons of singing and dancing ability in the thread reflect individual fans’ subjective opinions and shouldn’t be read as an objective assessment.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Hello! Project board) thread “Many fans wish they’d seen a Morning Musume. with Runo Yokaze, Mifuu Kawashima, Hana Goto, and Reina Uemura.”
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