On a Hello! Project discussion board, a debate ignited over a post suggesting that so-called “Mōre-mi newcomers” — new fans said to have flowed in from Juice=Juice (“mōre” being slang for looking extra glam or photogenic, often via makeup/editing) — lack respect for Morning Musume, the group that has long served as Hello! Project’s flagship act. The thread saw a sharp clash between the counterargument that “they’re a separate group, so there’s no reason to show respect” and the criticism that “this dismisses the history Morning Musume has built up over the years.” The discussion also touched on generational gaps, including the uproar over Morning Musume’s suspension following a member scandal, and the fact that younger fans never experienced the group’s golden age in the first place.
Kind of like that.
They're fans of Juice=Juice, you know?
Has Morning Musume ever done anything for Juice=Juice?
these people don't even respect Juice=Juice's own graduated members.
You don't need to respect the original lineup either, do you?
It's Juice=Juice that's funding the "pension" for people who lived through Morning Musume's golden age and are still with Up-Front, you know? (slang for veterans coasting on past fame)
Yuko Nakazawa gets that, which is why she's solidly behind Juice=Juice.
Why would you need to respect a separate group?
Saying stuff like that is exactly why people outside "the village" call this a religion.
They genuinely couldn't care less about Morning Musume, Angerme, or Tsubaki Factory.
That's basically a checklist of reasons existing fans hate them.
forget respect, some of them probably didn't even know it existed.
Let's look forward to the growth of Homame-Irairī-Getaharu, the 18th gen.
And also the new member coming in from the next audition, and the current trainees.
No need to respect each other.
If you've got time to force other fandoms to respect the history you've built up,
maybe make sure Morning Musume's own members actually feel the weight of that history first.
You went and said something reasonable, so now
it's turned into people just spamming the same chant over and over.
Who needs respect anyway.
Respect?
Oh, totally lol
That's embarrassing.
This isn't a board where newbies who only discovered Hello! Project through the Mōre-mi wave should be posting.
But honestly, if we actually recruited all these new fans onto Wolf — and there are clearly tons of them — the board wouldn't have to complain about being dead anymore.
These newcomers don't even have that much.
Is there really enough "and all that" to even say "and all that"?
That's exactly what makes it interesting to follow from here.
Judging by how much this thread's grown, it doesn't seem like anyone actually believes that.
For Morning Musume's 18th gen, people wanted ready-to-perform talent, not just kids…
https://kizuna.5ch.io/test/read.cgi/morningcoffee/1790817013/
I definitely respect the Golden, Platinum, and Colorful eras.
Hello! Project exists today because of 29 years of history.
It's actually the other way around — the old guard gets to act big precisely because the current members are selling well.
If the group had flopped and disbanded, the OGs would have nowhere left to appear.
Yuko Nakazawa understands that much, at least.
Background and Key Points of This Debate
Hello! Project is the umbrella talent-agency framework encompassing multiple idol groups, and Morning Musume has long held the position of its most storied, flagship act. Juice=Juice, meanwhile, has seen a surge in media exposure in recent years, and the new fans who’ve joined through that exposure are being dubbed “Mōre-mi newcomers.” The thread split over a single question: is there an obligation to respect a different group within the same agency? Those who say no emphasized each group’s independence — “they’re a separate group, so it’s none of their business” — while those who say yes took issue with what they saw as a dismissal of 29 years of history and achievement. Citing comments from Yuko Nakazawa, some pointed out that the current generation’s popularity is what sustains the OG generation’s activities, hinting at the complicated feelings surrounding this generational handover. That said, no concrete incident backing up the premise that these newcomers actually “lack respect” was offered within the thread itself — much of this appears to rest on individual impressions and gut feelings, which is worth keeping in mind.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Hello! Project) thread “Don’t you think the Mōre-mi newcomers show way too little respect for Morning Musume??“
