Hello! Project group Juice=Juice’s “Kudo Yume Birthday Event 2026” has sold out both the matinee and evening performances at Setagaya Egret Hall, and the fan club has announced there will be no second-round ticket applications. On 5ch’s Hello! Project thread, posters expressed surprise one after another — “Tako-chan’s (Kudo Yume’s nickname) popularity suddenly shot up” and “the venue’s popularity is even higher than when Ishiyama sold out Yurakucho Asahi Hall” — especially notable since the matinee show had noticeably empty seats last time. There are also anxious voices about the introduction of face-recognition e-tickets, with worries that upcoming Budokan and Pia Arena shows may see a rush of ticket-lottery losses too.
What people said
12AnonymousAug 25, 2026 17:06
Venue popularity is even higher now than when Ishiyama sold out the evening show at Yurakucho Asahi Hall. Juice=Juice's popularity is just absurd.
18AnonymousAug 25, 2026 17:22
And last year the matinee show was practically empty…
19AnonymousAug 25, 2026 17:23
Guess new fans are finally catching on to Tako-chan's charm.
20AnonymousAug 25, 2026 17:25
Nah, these aren't new fans — it's DDs (fans who follow multiple idols/groups at once) flooding in.
61AnonymousAug 25, 2026 17:49
Re: #20
Yeah, that's probably it.
22AnonymousAug 25, 2026 17:28
Tako-chan's cute, a great singer, and has a great personality — she's the best.
23AnonymousAug 25, 2026 17:28
Hard to find a venue much bigger than Setagaya around here.
26AnonymousAug 25, 2026 17:33
No second round has to mean they miscalculated the capacity.
28AnonymousAug 25, 2026 17:36
Guess the "Hyoremi" effect kicked in.
30AnonymousAug 25, 2026 17:37
Re: #28
Hey, still waiting on that apology?
29AnonymousAug 25, 2026 17:37
The last Monday in September is an easy day to take off work, too.
31AnonymousAug 25, 2026 17:38
Kudo topped the Harocolle (Hello! Project collection) poll and still lost the lottery for both shows — it's blowing up on X (Twitter) lol
32AnonymousAug 25, 2026 17:38
Tako-chan suddenly blew up huge.
33AnonymousAug 25, 2026 17:38
Thought Kudo's shows were a nightmare to get tickets for, but turns out it's a full-on lottery-loss festival. Next up is probably Irie.
34AnonymousAug 25, 2026 17:39
This time of year, both she and her fans are usually swamped. This year, though, so many people lost the lottery that fans ended up with time on their hands.
35AnonymousAug 25, 2026 17:39
She's clearly top-tier popularity within Hello! Project at this point.
36AnonymousAug 25, 2026 17:39
Wait, is this an e-ticket?
38AnonymousAug 25, 2026 17:40
Re: #36
> Note: Entry to this performance will be via e-ticket using facial recognition.
37AnonymousAug 25, 2026 17:40
I always applied in the second round every year — guess there's none this time.
40AnonymousAug 25, 2026 17:41
At this rate, Budokan and Pia Arena will probably be a lottery-loss festival too, even with e-tickets.
51AnonymousAug 25, 2026 17:46
If Kudo alone can fill both Setagaya shows, then for Kawashima even a 1,500-capacity venue probably wouldn't be enough.
78AnonymousAug 25, 2026 17:51
Re: #51
A lottery-loss festival would be rough. There are weekday events and tour dates too — I wonder if fans even have any paid leave left.
82AnonymousAug 25, 2026 17:51
Re: #51
Tickets went unsold last time, so I doubt they'll bump the capacity up much. A lottery-loss festival is guaranteed.
52AnonymousAug 25, 2026 17:46
Is this the Aarii effect? Maybe Aarii's going to show up.
59AnonymousAug 25, 2026 17:49
Wow, incredible. Guess this is what it looks like when something actually sells.
69AnonymousAug 25, 2026 17:50
It's kind of scary how it feels like even Arisawa or Irie might be able to draw a bigger crowd than Kawanishi at this rate.
74AnonymousAug 25, 2026 17:50
Guess going forward, anything smaller than Zepp-class venues just won't cut it.
85AnonymousAug 25, 2026 17:51
You can really tell Juice=Juice is blowing up huge among Hello! Project fans in general — the people coming aren't just Tako-chan's own fans. Now I'm getting nervous about my oshi's birthday event.
88AnonymousAug 25, 2026 17:52
Anti-fan trolls ("ankasu") do nothing but boomerang their own insults back at themselves lol
89AnonymousAug 25, 2026 17:52
They can fill a 1,200-capacity venue in Ise, so why is ANGERME doing so miserably?
112AnonymousAug 25, 2026 17:54
Of course new fans go straight for Juice=Juice, and even among longtime Hello! Project fans they're the most popular group — they're the only group where you're guaranteed a quality live show.
122AnonymousAug 25, 2026 17:55
Re: #112
That's a bit much. They're just bandwagon fans.
131AnonymousAug 25, 2026 17:59
Wait, is Moara's show using facial recognition too?
139AnonymousAug 25, 2026 18:02
Re: #131
> Note: Entry to this performance will be via e-ticket using facial recognition.
145AnonymousAug 25, 2026 18:02
Re: #139
Ah I see, so it's the same as before.
152AnonymousAug 25, 2026 18:02
Re: #139
So it does have facial recognition after all.
Background and Key Points
Kudo Yume is a member of Juice=Juice, one of the flagship groups under Hello! Project (H!P), the idol umbrella label run by Up-Front Works that also oversees Morning Musume and ANGERME. In H!P, each member gets an annual solo “birthday event,” typically staged at small-to-mid-size halls; tickets for these are usually distributed via fan-club lottery, with a second-round application opening if the first round doesn’t fill the venue. Setagaya Egret Hall is a modest public theater in Tokyo, and Kudo’s matinee show there last year reportedly had visible empty seats. This year, by contrast, both the matinee and evening shows sold out outright, prompting the fan club to skip the second-round application entirely — a sign that demand from the first-round lottery alone exceeded capacity.
The thread’s disagreement centers on why the sudden jump happened. One camp reads it as Kudo herself breaking out — new fans discovering “Tako-chan’s” charm — while others (posts 20, 61, 122) push back, attributing the sellout to “DDs” (fans who float across multiple idols/groups rather than dedicated Kudo fans) and general bandwagon interest in Juice=Juice as a group, not a personal surge for Kudo. That distinction matters in idol fandom, where a member’s perceived individual drawing power affects her standing for future singles, centers, and larger solo shows.
What outside readers will likely miss is the significance of the facial-recognition e-ticket system mentioned almost in passing. This technology has been rolling out across H!P concert tickets specifically to curb scalping and duplicate-account lottery entries, which historically inflated apparent demand; posters’ anxiety about upcoming Budokan and Pia Arena shows reflects real uncertainty about whether authenticated, one-fan-one-ticket sales will produce even fiercer shortages, or if it will simply reveal true demand more accurately for the first time.
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