Is singing and dancing ability essential for an idol, or is good looks alone enough? On 5ch’s Hello! Project board, a debate broke out over exactly this question of “skill first or visuals first.” Citing examples like the Sakamichi groups succeeding on a looks-first approach, and the fact that Juice=Juice is currently the only Hello! Project group getting TV appearances, posters weighed in from every angle. The discussion reached a stalemate between the view that skill makes competing on looks unnecessary, and the view that since it’s a job where you’re constantly being watched, there’s no escaping the looks factor.
they made this dead-end thread
on purpose.
Visuals really are number one.
Sakamichi already lost to Equal Love (=LOVE), though.
That's faster than trying to overhaul Hello! Project into something like Sakamichi.
Everyone charging in the same direction and torching the whole field — that's K-pop-style thinking.
Though Hello! Project had a bit of that vibe even before the whole 'mori' (flattering, heavily done-up) look became standard.
Case closed.
Flip side: if you can actually sing and dance, you don't need to win on looks either.
Juice=Juice is the only one actually competing in an environment judged on looks.
The other Hello! Project groups are only ever measured by in-house, fandom-bubble standards.
Also, today's idols aren't actress-level good-looking — that's exactly why they're doing idol work instead.
That's just because only the good ones are the ones still around today.
Watch old streams of '8 O'clock! Everybody Gather!' (8時だョ!全員集合) and tons of B- and C-tier idols who vanished almost instantly show up — bad enough that you'll understand exactly why they got dismissed as 'jaritare' (cheap kiddie talent).
Idols from the '90s onward have had lessons since childhood and grown up singing karaoke, so the average skill level today is way higher.
Those totals are different, so that's not even a fair comparison.
Hello! Project is the one that never rewrote that definition.
Akimoto Yasushi is the one who rewrote it.
Sakamichi idols especially are sold on the single point of having above-average looks,
so the moment a younger talent shows up with the same trait, they're easily replaced and tossed back out into the world with no actual skills to fall back on.
Right — and since there's an endless supply of replaceable talent, it's a business model where you gather a ton of them, and the moment one graduates, next.
Back in the Platinum era, fans were strict enough to pick out pitch differences down to an eighth-tone.
Juice=Juice right now sings better than the Platinum era or Mobekimasu ever did.
No, that's not true.
These days the correction and mixing tech used for audio and video is on a completely different level from the Platinum/Mobekimasu era.
Looking at footage, the sound mixing back then was far worse than today's bar-event (small live-house show) footage.
Judging by current bar-event footage, today's Juice can't hold a candle to that era.
I wish they'd screen those people out when forming a group.
It doesn't work without someone there to make the others look better by comparison.
These days — or really since around the 'Wanfoa' era (a specific lineup/period, exact reference unclear) — there's been this trend of praising people who don't actually have much skill.
The problem now is it's basically become 'whoever says it first wins.'
Calling that level 'skill-first' is way too embarrassing.
On TV your face gets shown in close-up, so you can't just say looks don't matter.
But Juice=Juice is the only Hello! Project group that actually gets on TV.
Bad casting choice.
Has to be Inoue or Ebata, nobody else works.
whether or not she's actually good is a separate question.
Even playing the graduation card didn't get her on TV, so the illusion isn't really working, is it?
Background and Key Points of This Debate
This kind of clash between the “skill camp” and the “visuals camp” has come up again and again in the idol industry since the success of the AKB48 family of groups and the Sakamichi series (Nogizaka46, Sakurazaka46, Hinatazaka46). The Sakamichi groups tend to weight their selection criteria toward looks, while Hello! Project has traditionally placed heavy emphasis on developing singing and dancing ability — and the thread’s discussion largely revolved around this contrast between the two models. What split opinion in the thread was whether it’s more sustainable to say “if looks alone can draw an audience, skill isn’t necessary,” or “if you have skill, you don’t have to depend on looks.” That said, this is ultimately just fan impressions on an anonymous message board, and it’s worth noting that no objective figures — like actual attendance numbers or CD sales — were presented in the discussion to back up either side.
※This article is compiled as an excerpt and summary of the 5ch (Hello! Project board) thread “Isn’t it kind of a problem that idols are expected to have “no rights” if they can’t sing and dance?“.
