From our other sites
The story
A thread popped up on 5ch’s Hello! Project board after it was announced that Juice=Juice would be appearing on the Kohaku Uta Gassen singing contest. The thread’s starter admitted they couldn’t feel fully happy about the lineup performing without Karin Miyamoto (graduated 2020) and Manaka Inaba (graduated 2021), and longtime fans chimed in with comments like “I wish Karin-chan could have seen this moment too.” At the same time, the thread highlighted a generational gap with the newer fanbase drawn in largely by current members like Ruru Dambara, splitting opinion between those embracing the group’s generational turnover and those criticizing newcomers for not knowing the original-member era.
What people said
First you just lurk.
Then you start wanting to post.
Then you want to start your own thread.
And once you're starting a thread, you want it to actually reach 1000 replies.
The quickest way to pull that off (these days) is to start a thread stirring up rivalry/conflict.
Everyone goes through this phase.
The group's gradually being taken over by 'moreMi' newcomers (fans drawn in by the glam photo-editing/makeup culture on SNS).
That whole 'original members are everything' mindset died out the moment Kanazawa graduated anyway
They don't even know "Romance no Tochuu," "Kindan Shoujo," "Samidare Bijo ga Sa Midareru," or "Jitandan Dance" (classic Juice=Juice songs)
and yet they call themselves "Juice otaku" — these people are straight-up Reiwa-era monsters lol
Morning Musume '26, Angerme, and Tsubaki Factory don't have that problem, so they're carrying on as usual.
Only Juice=Juice has changed lol. Well, at least it's just the one group that got taken over.
January 2005: Kaori Iida graduates
2011: Riho Sayashi and others join
December 2020: Karin Miyamoto graduates
December 2026: next month
Anyone still bringing Miyamoto into talk about Juice=Juice today is like bringing up Iida when discussing the Morning Musume scene from around the time Sayashi joined.
Even in AKB48, the oldest members are over 30.
Right now she's the most popular member in both Juice=Juice and all of Hello! Project.
You guys just had no taste, no eye for talent.
Karin-chan and Manakan are waiting for you there! Go on, off to M-Line.
Because Juice=Juice belongs to Dambara and the 'moreMi' newbies now — there's no place left for you in Hello! Project lol
but Inaba definitely would have
…and Aina Otsuka too…
Inaba
Miyamoto
Miyamoto isn't even getting a glance from the 'moreMi' newbies
Same goes for Kanazawa — looks really are everything in the end
Angerme otaku: "Of course I know the S/mileage days too."
Tsubaki Factory otaku: "Of course I know Rikorico, Kiki Asakura-chan, and Risamaru Kogata."
BEYOOOOONDS otaku: "Of course I know leader Ichioka and Yume-chan."
OCHA NORMA otaku: "Of course I know Ishiguri and Tashiro."
'moreMi' newbie: "Miyamoto? Miyazaki? Kanazawa? Takagi? Uemura? Yanagawa? Inaba? Never heard of them. Don't care." lololol
That's just normal turnover for a group that's constantly renewing itself — it just shows how few new fans had actually been coming in until now
Juice=Juice has shifted to a fixed-lineup system
Ranked by popularity
Instagram follower counts
10/01/26 10/31/26 change posts
*,167,155 *,170,225 +3070 25 Reon Inoue
*,136,357 *,136,515 +*158 13 Manaka Inaba
*,133,081 *,135,093 +2012 17 Ruru Dambara
*,116,367 *,119,698 +3331 *2 Hisaki Ebata
*,114,172 *,114,053 -*119 *7 Karin Miyamoto
Karin-chan's fallen all the way to 5th place!?
She's about to get overtaken by Kawashima too, at this rate
[Breaking] Juice=Juice's Mifuu Kawashima's personal Instagram blows past 100,000 followers at lightning speed ｷﾀ━━━━(ﾟ∀ﾟ)━━━━!!
https://kizuna.5ch.io/test/read.cgi/morningcoffee/1793357727/
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
Juice=Juice is a Hello! Project group formed in 2013. Karin Miyamoto graduated in December 2020, and Manaka Inaba in March 2021. Both served as the face of the group for a long stretch of its history and are still often brought up as “original members” even now, years after leaving. Meanwhile, the current lineup — centered on members like Ruru Dambara and Reon Inoue — is said to be drawing new fans through the so-called “moreMi” culture (flattering photo-editing and makeup trends popular on social media), and the thread included Instagram follower data showing shifting popularity rankings among current members. Opinion in the thread split between longtime fans wanting newer fans to appreciate “that era” and those who see generational turnover as simply natural for an idol group — no consensus was reached. One fact worth keeping in mind, which isn’t obvious from the replies alone, is that it has already been five to six years since Miyamoto and Inaba graduated.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Hello! Project board) thread “Even with Juice=Juice’s Kohaku appearance confirmed, I honestly can’t feel genuinely happy about it when neither Karin Miyamoto nor Manaka Inaba is in the lineup.”
Leave a Reply