Tsunku: “NICE GIRL Alumni Are Still Thriving” — 5ch: “The only one still ‘in’ is Reirei”

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The story

On his personal note blog, Tsunku♂ looked back on “NICE GIRL Project!,” the idol development program he ran in the late 2000s, writing that the members who were trained back then are still active both in and outside Hello! Project today. When this post was picked up on 5channel’s Hello!Pro board, it sparked a rare wave of discussion about what happened to the NICE GIRL alumni. While Reon Inoue (Reirei) came up as one of the few members who transferred over and remains within Hello! Project, commenters also asked about the current whereabouts of former Canary Club and Chao! Beracco members, and opinions split over how to evaluate the project itself.

I want to talk about the NICE GIRL Project!, which I started 19 years ago.

Back then, we trained for about three to four years trying to condense and project the “Tsunku♂-ism” we’d built up through Hello! Project even further, and the result was a group with remarkably high skill.

That’s exactly why the members who gained skills through their trainee experience in the NICE GIRL Project! are still active both in and outside Hello! Project today.

Source: note.tsunku.net / Original article here

What people said

3AnonymousSep 24, 2026 12:25
Reirei and Ogata, huh
4AnonymousSep 24, 2026 12:26
*clackclackclackclack* (the sound of someone typing furiously)
5AnonymousSep 24, 2026 12:26
Shut up! You should hurry up and write a hit song for Morning Musume。'26 instead!
11AnonymousSep 24, 2026 12:29
That's way too much
Isn't there a girl who'll come forward about it?
12AnonymousSep 24, 2026 12:29
This reads like something that'd make Ogata and Hirose furious
14AnonymousSep 24, 2026 12:31
I wonder what the Chao! Beracco girls are all up to these days…
15AnonymousSep 24, 2026 12:31
Also lol, the former 7HOUSE guy is now president of Create, and even Chao! Beracco got picked up, but Ogata and Hirose got left behind
54AnonymousSep 24, 2026 13:26
Re: #15
Oh, drummer Hideki Oguro?
According to Wiki he's a director at TNX
so I guess he went from there to becoming Create's representative director
20AnonymousSep 24, 2026 12:40
Hana Kojima's former colleague was supposedly a trainee too, but it's never been made public
It's still taboo at Stardust and the agencies around there
21AnonymousSep 24, 2026 12:40
The only one that's finished is Juice=Juice
23AnonymousSep 24, 2026 12:42
Once you start saying "I'm the one who raised them," that's a sign of old age
24AnonymousSep 24, 2026 12:46
NICE GIRL deserved way more attention honestly
They had good songs, and Canary Club especially had that pure Tsunku-production feel in spades
They're still doing something called Sparkling Eyes over at TNX now but honestly it hasn't really taken off
25AnonymousSep 24, 2026 12:46
So in Tsunku's head this was a huge success, huh
26AnonymousSep 24, 2026 12:46
I wonder if Chihiro Mochida is still working as an actress
29AnonymousSep 24, 2026 12:50
"In and out of Hello! Project," he says
The only one still "in" is Reirei
31AnonymousSep 24, 2026 12:54
Re: #29
Only about 5 people transferred over in the first place, so as long as they're not extinct that's good enough
40AnonymousSep 24, 2026 12:58
Reirei: "I haven't really gotten much direct advice from Tsunku-san"
43AnonymousSep 24, 2026 12:59
Re: #1
The only one "inside" is Reirei, what are you half-asleep or something
46AnonymousSep 24, 2026 13:01
Re: #43
I'd get it if there were none, but there is one, so you're the one who's half-asleep
47AnonymousSep 24, 2026 13:03
Megumi Murata, who pioneered the glasses-girl character, only to get banned from wearing glasses herself once Tokito and Canary Club started doing the glasses-idol thing
48AnonymousSep 24, 2026 13:06
Says a lot about Reon Inoue's loyalty that she still respects THE Possible to this day
55AnonymousSep 24, 2026 13:26
Re: #48
It's less about loyalty and more that since they've disbanded, her feelings just never had a reason to change
Real loyalty is still respecting them even after they've fallen off, like with Musume。or Angerme
49AnonymousSep 24, 2026 13:07
This guy just abandoned them and now he's saying this…?
50AnonymousSep 24, 2026 13:08
Re: #49
This, exactly
57AnonymousSep 24, 2026 13:32
Re: #49
Terada's outfit is way too harsh, lol (nickname mocking how Terada's agency treated them)
59AnonymousSep 24, 2026 13:37
He'll never acknowledge the current Juice=Juice, so instead he's patting himself on the back over NGP
61AnonymousSep 24, 2026 13:41
Well, they really did used to sing standing on top of boxes
Not that it's relevant though
62AnonymousSep 24, 2026 13:42
Terada just couldn't handle taking care of them anymore, so Up-Front reluctantly took them in, that's all
63AnonymousSep 24, 2026 13:42
There's only two of them, so he could just name them directly
Guess he'll never bring himself to praise the current Juice=Juice no matter what

Background and Discussion Points

The NICE GIRL Project! was a Hello! Project-trainee-style idol development program run by Tsunku♂ in the late 2000s, and it gave rise to units like Canary Club and Chao! Beracco. Some graduates, like Reon Inoue (Reirei), transferred into Hello! Project, but most went on to entertainment careers outside Hello! Project or retired altogether, with commenters in the thread pointing out that “only a handful actually transferred over.” Related ventures such as a trainee business and a cheer-dance school were also launched at the time, but all of them ended up short-lived, which appears to be one reason behind the backlash to the “I’m the one who raised them”-style self-praise. It should be noted that there’s little official information tracking what NICE GIRL graduates are doing now, and much of what’s said in the thread doesn’t go beyond hearsay and speculation.

*This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5channel (Hello!Pro board) thread “Tsunku: “Members who honed high-level skills through the NICE GIRL Project are still active in and outside Hello! Project today”.”

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