Yamagishi Riko and Kishimoto Yumeno graduated Tsubaki Factory/H!P on Nov. 6th at Nippon Budokan
Thu Apr 13, 2023 11:54 pm
News just broke and it broke me.
Yamagishi Riko wishes to walk the path of an actress. While Kishimoto Yumeno will do so as a soloist.
No deciding dates have been announced yet. They wanted to announce it before the start of their spring tour.
I'll update the subject line when more information becomes available.
Edit. Apparently my brain skips over words. They are graduating this fall.
Blog Post from Riko
Blog Post from Yumeno
Yamagishi Riko wishes to walk the path of an actress. While Kishimoto Yumeno will do so as a soloist.
No deciding dates have been announced yet. They wanted to announce it before the start of their spring tour.
I'll update the subject line when more information becomes available.
Edit. Apparently my brain skips over words. They are graduating this fall.
Blog Post from Riko
Blog Post from Yumeno
Last edited by Shoujo Q on Tue Sep 26, 2023 1:30 am, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Yamagishi Riko and Kishimoto Yumeno to Graduate Tsubaki Factory and Hello!Project in the Fall.
Fri Apr 14, 2023 12:52 am
Nooooooooooo! 
Re: Yamagishi Riko and Kishimoto Yumeno to Graduate Tsubaki Factory and Hello!Project in the Fall.
Fri Apr 14, 2023 1:07 am
The 25 year marker for Riko...
It's good that the little camellias are ready to take front and center as it seems like the older girls are thinking about their futures now. Inevitable but UF was prepared
It's good that the little camellias are ready to take front and center as it seems like the older girls are thinking about their futures now. Inevitable but UF was prepared
Re: Yamagishi Riko and Kishimoto Yumeno to Graduate Tsubaki Factory and Hello!Project in the Fall.
Fri Apr 14, 2023 3:45 am
I would very much like a do-over on this year 
Re: Yamagishi Riko and Kishimoto Yumeno to Graduate Tsubaki Factory and Hello!Project in the Fall.
Fri Apr 14, 2023 4:07 am
I am dead.
Okay, like, I'm glad they're not dragging it out one by one and I knew it was gonna start happening more...but heck.
I don't want Tsubaki Factory to become yet another group that welcomes new members all the time like Angerme. It really kills my interest if there's a constant supply of new people who barely solidify themselves before another one shows up. If they add members again this year I'm really just dead.
Okay, like, I'm glad they're not dragging it out one by one and I knew it was gonna start happening more...but heck.
I don't want Tsubaki Factory to become yet another group that welcomes new members all the time like Angerme. It really kills my interest if there's a constant supply of new people who barely solidify themselves before another one shows up. If they add members again this year I'm really just dead.
Re: Yamagishi Riko and Kishimoto Yumeno to Graduate Tsubaki Factory and Hello!Project in the Fall.
Fri Apr 14, 2023 5:24 am
I hate to break it to you, but the moment they welcomed new members in, they became a revolving door group. They had a option of not doing that, but the group themselves chose to become a generational group and not disband. Now, as much as I don't like new girls coming in and overshadowing older girls. It's going to happen.
I think they did the right thing with Tsubaki by having a new generation coming in and getting comfortable before the graduations started to take effect. When they brought in so many girls, my brain went into overdrive. How many of the old members are leaving? It was the first thing I thought of. And it seems now, a year later, I'm finally getting my answer.
We all hope that with the next generation they will do the same and it wont go all, Angerme/Juice=Juice where girls drop left and right without any time to recover. But the world isn't perfect, and things happen. Juice=Juice is a prime example of that. Unexpected things happen and graduations happen. These are real people with real life problems. While they are there to entertain us, sometimes it becomes too much even for them. They ask to leave, they are suggested to move on, whatever it is. We need to accept that it will be a thing that will eventually happen. It's REALLY tough as a fan. It hurts like hell. I've been in this fandom for over 20 years and I STILL miss certain girls. But Hello!Project was built on the principle that there will always been someone that will continue to sing the songs that were created. I'm pretty amazed that they are still singing stuff from 20+ years ago and it's timeless. At some point, you stop becoming a fan of a certain group and then become a fan of the Project as a whole.
On a side note, I've been knee deep in the bowels of H!P Wiki the last few weeks, working on some stuff for my own amusement. They have a section in their member section for tenure of debuted H!P members. The Kenshuusei have one too, but it's separate. Sometimes I'll stop what I'm doing and really look at how long some of the members stuck around.
If you have a kenshuusei that sticks around, debuts and then stays in a group. You can bet 10 years is going to be a benchmark where they start thinking about their future. Riko and Yumeno have been in H!P for over 10 years. 10 years is when they begin to tap out. You want to go do other things. You're an adult now. It's very rare you're getting any of the girls to stay longer. I THINK, (don't quote me) the average is 6-8 years due to contracts. I am not certain how long a contract runs in UF. But Tsubaki is at that 7 year mark, so it was inevitable that something was going to give.
I think they did the right thing with Tsubaki by having a new generation coming in and getting comfortable before the graduations started to take effect. When they brought in so many girls, my brain went into overdrive. How many of the old members are leaving? It was the first thing I thought of. And it seems now, a year later, I'm finally getting my answer.
We all hope that with the next generation they will do the same and it wont go all, Angerme/Juice=Juice where girls drop left and right without any time to recover. But the world isn't perfect, and things happen. Juice=Juice is a prime example of that. Unexpected things happen and graduations happen. These are real people with real life problems. While they are there to entertain us, sometimes it becomes too much even for them. They ask to leave, they are suggested to move on, whatever it is. We need to accept that it will be a thing that will eventually happen. It's REALLY tough as a fan. It hurts like hell. I've been in this fandom for over 20 years and I STILL miss certain girls. But Hello!Project was built on the principle that there will always been someone that will continue to sing the songs that were created. I'm pretty amazed that they are still singing stuff from 20+ years ago and it's timeless. At some point, you stop becoming a fan of a certain group and then become a fan of the Project as a whole.
On a side note, I've been knee deep in the bowels of H!P Wiki the last few weeks, working on some stuff for my own amusement. They have a section in their member section for tenure of debuted H!P members. The Kenshuusei have one too, but it's separate. Sometimes I'll stop what I'm doing and really look at how long some of the members stuck around.
If you have a kenshuusei that sticks around, debuts and then stays in a group. You can bet 10 years is going to be a benchmark where they start thinking about their future. Riko and Yumeno have been in H!P for over 10 years. 10 years is when they begin to tap out. You want to go do other things. You're an adult now. It's very rare you're getting any of the girls to stay longer. I THINK, (don't quote me) the average is 6-8 years due to contracts. I am not certain how long a contract runs in UF. But Tsubaki is at that 7 year mark, so it was inevitable that something was going to give.
Re: Yamagishi Riko and Kishimoto Yumeno to Graduate Tsubaki Factory and Hello!Project in the Fall.
Fri Apr 14, 2023 5:50 am
Honestly, I was feeling like Kishimon was going to graduate soonish, so I'm not too surprised by that. I can't explain why, but I've been getting that vibe from her for a while (no, it's not the blonde hair lol, it's just a general thing).
Yamagishi I wasn't expecting, although watching the latest H!P Station she did with Kiki I thought she was... kinda disengaged? But I don't watch a lot of Tsubaki footage so I partially dismissed that as me just not being familiar with her mannerisms. I just thought she would've been more relaxed/casual around a groupmate, personally, but eh.
Either way, yeah, they've both been in H!P for ages, so it makes sense. I hope they're successful in their post-H!P endeavours! Looking forward to Kishimon as a soloist, she has a lot of potential.
(Also, hopefully there aren't too many conspiracy theories about how UF kicked them out due to that leaked photo. Their graduations were no doubt decided long before that happened. Hell, I'm wondering if Kishimon took a few of the members out with her friends to celebrate because she was gonna announce her grad publicly this week lol.)
Yamagishi I wasn't expecting, although watching the latest H!P Station she did with Kiki I thought she was... kinda disengaged? But I don't watch a lot of Tsubaki footage so I partially dismissed that as me just not being familiar with her mannerisms. I just thought she would've been more relaxed/casual around a groupmate, personally, but eh.
Either way, yeah, they've both been in H!P for ages, so it makes sense. I hope they're successful in their post-H!P endeavours! Looking forward to Kishimon as a soloist, she has a lot of potential.
(Also, hopefully there aren't too many conspiracy theories about how UF kicked them out due to that leaked photo. Their graduations were no doubt decided long before that happened. Hell, I'm wondering if Kishimon took a few of the members out with her friends to celebrate because she was gonna announce her grad publicly this week lol.)
Re: Yamagishi Riko and Kishimoto Yumeno to Graduate Tsubaki Factory and Hello!Project in the Fall.
Fri Apr 14, 2023 6:56 am
Goddddd there are too many damn graduations this year. 
I'm glad Kishimon wants to be a soloist; I'm just hoping they give her some good stuff whether she stays with Up-Front or not.
Otoh picturing Riko as an actress is weird, but I think that's just because she hasn't exactly done any acting gigs. She might surprise me!
I'm glad Kishimon wants to be a soloist; I'm just hoping they give her some good stuff whether she stays with Up-Front or not.
Otoh picturing Riko as an actress is weird, but I think that's just because she hasn't exactly done any acting gigs. She might surprise me!
Re: Yamagishi Riko and Kishimoto Yumeno to Graduate Tsubaki Factory and Hello!Project in the Fall.
Fri Apr 14, 2023 7:00 am
Up-Front learned a lesson from Berryz Kobo, ℃-ute, and Kobushi Factory: it takes a lot to launch a new group, and too much brand equity is lost when that group disbands. So every group has generations now, to keep the brand going indefinitely. Even BEYOOOOONDS and OCHA NORMA, technically; members were added between announcement and debut.
Maybe we should start a "Graduation Speculation" thread, because graduations are inevitable and it would help to mentally prepare for them.
Me, I expect Ikuta to announce soon, because she's also at that age and I can't imagine her staying much longer after Fukumura graduates later this year. She's barely engaged as it is. I would even believe that she wanted to graduate with Fukumura, but someone gently reminded her that she's not as popular and she would just drag down what will probably be the biggest MM concert since Michishige's graduation.
Maybe we should start a "Graduation Speculation" thread, because graduations are inevitable and it would help to mentally prepare for them.
Me, I expect Ikuta to announce soon, because she's also at that age and I can't imagine her staying much longer after Fukumura graduates later this year. She's barely engaged as it is. I would even believe that she wanted to graduate with Fukumura, but someone gently reminded her that she's not as popular and she would just drag down what will probably be the biggest MM concert since Michishige's graduation.
Re: Yamagishi Riko and Kishimoto Yumeno to Graduate Tsubaki Factory and Hello!Project in the Fall.
Fri Apr 14, 2023 7:56 am
The thing about the rotational system is that if EVERY group becomes rotational then H!P will become overcrowded. There are 6 groups right now with 10+ members each and probably in midst to form a new one with the HPK Unit members + new Momusu member(s) being added soon, and looking through their content right now UPF either likes to play cheap or they're going through some struggle.
As for the girls, like Shoujo Q said, they've been in H!P for more than 10 years counting the HPK period so this was bound to happen because this is usually the period that they start to think about their future endeavors (even more if you reach 25 apparently *mentally plays 25sai Eien Setsu*). I'm going to miss them so much tho
As for the girls, like Shoujo Q said, they've been in H!P for more than 10 years counting the HPK period so this was bound to happen because this is usually the period that they start to think about their future endeavors (even more if you reach 25 apparently *mentally plays 25sai Eien Setsu*). I'm going to miss them so much tho