I can't believe that is Risako. There is a slight resemblance, but only slight. Sure, she might have lost weight and changed her personal style, but not that much in only six months. Never mind that if you look closely, the eyes, nose, eyebrows, jawline, body type, etc. are all different.
Without some real sourcing, this belongs in the Lookalikes thread.
^That's why I haven't put it in the lookalikes thread, I put it in here to see if anyone had a source for this, because it DOES look like it could be her, but it's a far stretch... So if anyone has a source for this picture, please share! (if there's no source, we can just assume it's not her)
NoBerryz,NoLife. Please people, I'm a "he" not a "she".
My next thought, then, is: Damn, how much of the wild and... Rubinesque Risako of the last several years was just a bad reaction to the stress of being an idol, if she has changed this much in just six months?
In the other pictures it looks like she's lost weight, but the change isn't very dramatic. So in that picture I'm going with angle and lighting. It seems Rii had hidden in her a bit of gothic-ness Which makes me like her more. The sense of Melancholy around her hasn't gone away at all - which probably tells me it was her persona and not really she was unhappy in Berryz.
I wasn't a huge fan of Risako, but I loved her somewhat mysterious personality which is so different from other idols. It's so nice to see her face again!