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The story
Maria Makino, a Hello! Project alumna, is once again trending on X (formerly Twitter) after photos of her cheering on the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters went viral — and opinions on 5ch split right down the middle. The spark was a photo of her cheering at full volume, picked up by Tokyo Sports and other outlets. Defenders argued she’s being criticized just for sitting there cheering, while critics shot back that “she’s drawing more attention than the players themselves” and “she should prioritize her actual career.” Some posters even pointed out that she’s effectively being treated as fair game for anti-fans to pile on.
What people said
Same treatment as Hikaru and Ishimaru get (two public figures who are constant targets for online pile-ons).
They can win decently enough, except against the "toilet bowl" team (a mocking 5ch nickname for a rival club).
Apparently just being at the stadium is the problem.
It'd be like an Osaka native rooting for the Giants — isn't that basically treason?
She should take a page from Rua Hattori-chan's book.
It should just be approval, all approval.
The people criticizing her clearly have old-fashioned, idiotic thinking lol
Who cares if Maria-chan's sitting in the cheering section —
and the Fighters are weak right now anyway lol, so quit playing righteous and complaining, you idiots.
X followers
Haruka Kudo 124,000
Yuka Nihei 81,000
Karin Miyamoto 75,000
Ayaka Wada 71,000
Mei Tamura 69,000
Haruna Iikubo 69,000
Miyabi Natsuyaki 59,000
Manaka Inaba 48,000
Yuuki Sato 47,000
Harumi Ogata 37,000
Akari Takeuchi 35,000
Kaede Kaga 34,000
Makoto Ogawa 34,000
Riho Sayashi 28,000
Risa Kobira 26,000
Kurumi Takase 26,000
Maria Makino 22,000 ← this one
Rikako Sasaki 21,000
Erina Ikuta 21,000
Rika Shimakura 19,000
Ayumi Ishida 16,000
Maybe focus on your actual job lol
I hate the Nippon-Ham Fighters, but I love Maria-chan lolololol
Whether the agency officially signed off on it or just looked the other way, who knows.
Promotion for what, when they know full well she'll get bashed given how things have been lately?
Honestly, even people with zero interest in baseball are piling on.
Those seats are reserved for the cheer squad to stand on stepladder-like platforms and wave flags.
Well, that can't be helped then.
If you don't like it, just ignore it.
https://i.imgx.site/dhcf0Yt.jpg
Maria-chan with her game face on, cheering her voice hoarse during the match
https://i.imgx.site/cACCpcN.jpg
Wow, so Makino's seriously the youngest member of the Tosho-kai cheer squad.
She's got a great expression there.
Well, she can't exactly appear on news programs, after all.
RioRio's workload keeps growing, so she's set.
She's appeared on TXN News and even WBS.
That's a business program, not a news program.
Background and Key Points of the Debate
Underlying this incident is a structure in which idols’ photos get used for team and agency promotional purposes. As post 33 points out, it’s not unusual for a team to tacitly allow, or even supply, photos taken by the press — these are often a form of promotion rather than candid paparazzi shots. What really divided opinion on the thread wasn’t whether she should come to cheer at all, but how her visibility there should be judged. Supportive comments praised her expressions and the intensity of her cheering, while critical ones took issue with her “drawing more attention than the players” and argued she “should prioritize her main career.” It’s also worth noting that, as in post 23’s comparison of X follower counts, some comments dragged in the pecking order of fame among Hello! Project alumnae — meaning the discussion spread into territory that had little to do with the act of cheering itself.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Hello! Project board) thread “Maria Makino’s Baseball-Cheering Look Sparks Fresh Debate on X Again.”
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