The H!P Musings/Rants Thread

[Zunu]

I'm happy for all the new JuBaccys, I guess, but I'm still way more interested in the debut of "KiKaNa MaNa RuMiMo"

[aerosuffly]

I have been watching the Hello! Project Visual Commentary, and it is so interesting how the live performance differ among the members from different generations / backgrounds. It also made me miss ℃-ute so much.

[Amped]

On July 20th, a new Hello! Project New Member Audition 2021 will start and there will be a possibility that more members from this audition could join the new group. More details will be up on the H!P site soon.

It looks like H!P staff are preparing to reuse the "Hello! Project ONLY YOU Audition" twitter account and will use it for updates on the Hello! Project New Member Audition 2021. They have already styled it with a new banner and updated the description.


Recruitment will begin on Tuesday, July 20th, 2021!
Details will be announced on the Hello! Project's official website.
https://twitter.com/hello_audition

[Tobo_Junny135]

the whole thing seems familiar, they made an audition straight after adding the other 6 members of Beyoooonds (before SeasoningS members) iirc that ended up as a no winner and everyone joined the H!P Kenshuseii right?

[Nayoko-Kihara]

That audition was in 2017, they announced the BEYOOOOONDS members in 2018. Yeah though, most of those finalists decided to join the Kenshuusei (and then most of them either quickly or eventually left, the only one still there after the new group is Yulia).

The audition they had after announcing the BYNDS members was the "ONLY YOU" audition, which was meant to find members for the "new Ichioka/Takase groups" (it started before they were combined into BYNDS). Out of pure luck, we also got Layla from that one.

[Tobo_Junny135]

2017? Yulia would’ve been like 9 years old. Has H!P ever had trainees that young before?

[Celedam]

Remember that the Kenshuusei program, as it is currently organized, is relatively new. First there were the Kids, and then there were the Eggs.

[Shoujo Q]

2017? Yulia would’ve been like 9 years old. Has H!P ever had trainees that young before?

Hagiwara Mai was the youngest at like 5-6, though they weren’t eggs, I consider the H!P kids to be the training ground for UF going into the actual training of idols business. They worked out their kinks with the Eggs and seem to be doing pretty good right now as far as properly training the girls as the Kenshuusei. Considering how much exposure they have been getting lately I think the program has leveled up. Their weekly show really helps.

[Celedam]

The trainees had to level up because H!P as a whole had to level up in order to remain competitive. H!P now has a reputation for being the high-class, performance-oriented alternative to other idol companies, and the Kenshuusei program has been organized to feed into that.

[Shoujo Q]

It's interesting to watch it (UF) evolve over the years and if you're coming in as a fan now, that's really all you see. What you mention, the high-class part. But as a long time fan where the original mentality was that we were taking these losers and making them into first class idols, it's a little bit jarring really. And something I need to get use too. Will we ever see girls like Konno, Koharu, (both) Harunas, Hagiwara making their debut in H!P or will they be relegated to Kenshuusei status from here on out?

I feel 'personally' almost like the K-pop model has really made this the new norm. You have girls who train for YEARS to debut and then are presented off as these super polished idols with very little flaws. And in doing so, you lose a bit of that home grown aspect to the idols which I always found endearing. Like a proud parent watching their little bird finally achieve their goals. In a way, that will always be a very Japanese way to look at idols and it's one I very much prefer. But that polished idol look is really creeping in and honestly, I'm not sure where I was going with any of this, but I guess I just had to vent about the state of idols right now.

I guess that's why indie idols are still very much a popular thing.